Presidente Franãƒâ§a Make Our Planet Grat Again
On 22 February, when the sixteen-year-quondam Swedish student turned climate activist Greta Thunberg went to Paris to march for the surround, French president Emmanuel Macron held a coming together with her at the Élysée Palace. Merely the invitation had non originated from him – Thunberg had asked to meet Macron.
Because his immense talent for symbolic gestures and self-promotion, it was unusual for the French president not to seize a golden PR opportunity by inviting Thunberg himself. Isn't she, after all, the vocalisation of the young generation, who could embody his glorious entrada pledge to "make our planet great once again"? For Macron to merely accede to her asking, instead of initiating the meeting, was rather off-brand.
Listening to the poised, determined young woman – who declared after first her school strike: "I am doing this because y'all adults are shitting on my future" – you quickly sympathise why. On 18 February, Thunberg told the French digital title Brut that her move aims to make politicians "accountable for the mess they have created". She had yet to see Macron at the time, and addressed him on video in these terms: "Dear Mr Macron, you need to accept activeness now, not just talking about taking action. Considering if you continue on going like this, 'business concern equally usual', y'all are going to neglect. And if you neglect, you are going to exist seen as one of the worst villains in human history."
In that location'southward no bullshit with Greta Thunberg and that'south a trouble for Macron. The immature activist was right to try and engage with the French president. Theoretically, he's a perfect ally: he rose to ability with campaign pledges to address climate change and wants to #MakeOurPlanetGreatAgain (a hashtag he has used dozens of times on Twitter). But in reality, Macron is far from living up to his light-green hype.
He has continuously disappointed ecologists, including his own surroundings minister Nicolas Hulot, a heavyweight in the French dark-green move, who resigned in disillusionment last September, declaring that he "couldn't prevarication to himself anymore" and that he felt "solitary" in a cabinet that only took insufficient, "tiny steps" to tackle environmental challenges. Hulot took the measure out of Macron's green-adorned but ultimately meaningless politics: "Have nosotros started to reduce our CO2 emissions? No. Have we started to reduce our employ of pesticides? No. To forestall the erosion of our biodiversity? No."
Since Hulot stepped down, Macron has shown no sign of irresolute direction. He famously angered French voters past increasing the country's fuel taxation,which led to the gilets jaunes crunch, but at no bespeak did the president offering to revenue enhancement the real, biggest carbon emission sources – such as fuel companies and other major polluters.
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Instead, Macron backtracked on the fuel tax rise birthday, postponing it for at least a year, and in doing so threatening his promise to make France carbon neutral by 2050. He has abandoned plans to shut nuclear reactors, postponing the deadline to 2035 (across the end of any 2d term), thus ensuring that the adjacent president will likely impose further delays.
He has retreated on his promise to ban glyphosate, a highly unsafe herbicide used in agriculture, within the adjacent three years. He has endangered France's biodiversity by extending the lawful menstruum for bird hunting. Indeed, he has given style to the pro-hun lobby at every plow, a state of affairs that Hulot denounced when he resigned. A Jan 2019 cess of Macron's dark-green policies past Le Monde concluded: "Since his election, Emmanuel Macron has multiplied environmental initiatives, just oft stopped earlier completing them."
Thunberg saw straight through the French president: he's not making our planet great again, he's just talking well-nigh information technology.
Footling is known most her meeting with Macron, other than that she was accompanied by several other young activists. François de Rugy, the current environs minister and a staunch Macronist, said that the exchange was "very interesting, very directly", which might suggest Macron was told he'southward a climate baddie. De Rugy reported the French president asking for Thunberg's assist to mobilise the youth: "Nosotros must pb, inspire, I tin can do it but I need your help."
Information technology remains unclear exactly how Thunberg tin assistance Macron implement his own green policies. Her view has always been that as a teenager, her range of action is limited – that'due south why she'due south calling on the adults to wake from their slumber. It's time for Macron, an developed in charge, to stop pretending but not to sympathise.
Like near men drunk on power, Macron loves a challenge. So here's ane. "Dear Mr President, you claim to want to make our planet not bad again, just are on grade to neglect. Greta Thunberg warned y'all. I trust y'all won't listen. Please prove the states incorrect."
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Source: https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2019/02/emmanuel-macron-isn-t-making-our-planet-great-again-he-s-just-talking-about-it
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