Since the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster in Japan, things have continued to get worse for nuclear world-wide. In the past months, Germany and Switzerland decided to phase-out their nuclear power infrastructure by 2022.  Just this past week, Italy passed a referendum outlawing the return of nuclear power.  Yet, France continues to hold strong [...]

Many people think of climate change in the mode of skepticismor despair, but a group of architects called Collectif et Alors has teamed with the Mairie de Paris to introduce another response: optimism. This group of architects has imagined how Paris would respond to a rise in temperature of 2 degrees Celsius in the next [...]

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been lauded in the past years as one of the driving forces behind the EU’s increasing goals to combat climate change.  He has also championed talks to try to align former French colonies in Africa in the climate change mitigation and adaptation debate.  Yet, the real changes to how “business [...]

In August, the French government launched a major renewable energy investment programme.  The new programme is dubbed <<démonstrateurs énergies renouvelables et chimie verte,>> which translates directly to “renewable energy and green chemistry demonstration.”  The renewable energy investment programme will provide €1.35bn of financial support to the sector over the coming four years. Officials have said [...]

France has been a leading nation in climate change negotiations in the recent past. French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a national carbon tax on global-warming pollutants. Generally, he recognizes that “We are on the road to failure…Time is not on our side.” He has even gone so far as to suggest the creation of [...]

On 11 March 2010 French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, opened an international conference on deforestation in Paris. The main focus of the International Conference on the Major Forest Basins was funding for REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, plus conservation, sustainable management of forests, and stock enhancement) activities during 2010-2012. France and Norway [...]

The French government is working towards implementation of a direct carbon tax by July 2010. France’s Constitutional Council struck down the first version of the carbon tax bill last 29 December. On 21 January 2010, the government proposed a number of amendments to the original legislation, which is aimed at encouraging French consumers to be [...]

The clock is ticking. The UNFCCC’s Copenhagen summit is just 7 days away, and recent reports have been encouraging. Shortly after China and the US made announcements on commitments to reduce their GHGS, Commonwealth leaders backed a $10bn Climate Change fund. Proposed by UK PM Gordon Brown, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the fund seeks [...]

On Thursday, 26 November the presidents of France and Brazil came out with a joint statement that rich(er) countries must immediately boost aid for developing nations in efforts towards climate change mitigation and adaptation. They lauded this as an essential key to obtaining a viable agreement in Copenhagen next month. Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula [...]

The groundbreaking Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission satellite was launched on 2 November 2009 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. This Franco-Spanish satellite project makes it possible to measure soil moisture and ocean salinity from space for the first time. It is an example of how the French government is keen to address climate change, [...]