The Deputy Minister for Industry Nicole Fontaine, former President of the European Parliament, organized a Public Debate on Energy from January to May 2003, to respond particularly to claims of the Green fraction of the public that energy matters in France, especially those related to nuclear energy, were not transparent . The seven sessions were held in Paris (2), Strasbourg, Nice, Bordeaux, and Rennes (2) in presence of the Minister and were surrounded by many contributions from all sorts of groups registered beforehand with the Ministry, such as round tables, lectures, exhibitions, and projections, all open to the public. Unfortunately the newsmedia did not report much of these debates. The Greens themselves declined to participate claiming that the debate was biased in favour of nuclear energy.The debates were monitored by a small group of independent energy experts and a Member of Parliament, helped in this task by the DGEMP, Direction Générale de l'Energie et des Matières Premières, a top-level group of young specialists, many of them graduates of the elite Ecole Polytechnique. Its role in the Ministry of Industry is to follow the trends of energy and raw materials and to make predictions and recommendations to the Government in a country largely devoid of energy resources. Hence this White Book issued on 7 November by Nicole Fontaine for the Government and for the public at large. It contains proposals for an Orientation Law on energy strategies for France for the next thirty years, which is to be discussed by the Parliament next year.

The White Book is a rather remarkable 120-page document. Every statement is duly supported by facts and figures and a broad range of statistics for France, and sometimes by comparisons within Europe and the World in order to set them in context. This reflects the professionalism of DGEMP and their broad database. The text can be obtained on the internet site http://www.energie.gouv.fr.

The contents of the Book are presented in four sections:

1- The energy situation in France, the challenges and the place of energy in the economic and social context. Demand and Supply sides are analyzed by sector.

2- Proposed objectives leading to a sustainable energy policy.

3- Government proposals.

4- Supporting documents. This part is itself divided into two sets of documents : principal existing and proposed rules and decrees, intended to promote the rational use of energy, efficiency, energy independence, etc. statistics, including energy trends for France based on a reasonable reference scenario, as well as regional and world trends.

We shall not enter into the details of the White Book but rather give the highlights and the main proposals, and conclude with a few personal remarks.

Demand is analyzed by sector in the usual way: residential, tertiary, transport, and industry.The energy demand for the residential sector grows by about 0.8 % per year in spite of some efforts towards efficiency; this is due to the trend towards increased comfort and increased use of electricity, mainly in heating and air conditioning.The demand of the tertiary sector has grown 43 % since 1986 - at an average annual rate of about 2.3% - mainly for electricity. But the total consumption in the sector is still only about half of that for the residential sector.Transport has grown steadily since the sixties in spite of the oil shocks, exactly following the Gross National Product; the sector is up 400 % since 1970, with 97 % provided by oil. Air transport today accounts for 4% of the CO2 emissions. The upward trend in energy demand for transports is the main concern today.Industry is the star performer - since 1973 industrial energy demand is down 20 %, mainly due to a decrease of 50 % in average energy intensity.Overall, the energy demand in France increases every year by 29 Mtoe (million tonnes of oil equivalent): oil for transportation is up by 2.3 % per year and electricity is up by 2 %.

Supply has followed demand so far in France, largely thanks to nuclear energy which supplies more than 80 % of its electricity. Here are some considerations of the White Book: On the challenge posed by the increase in greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.Between 1990 and 2001, the CO2 emissions have decreased 2.7 % overall. Although the CO2 produced by the transport sector is up 22 % and the residential and tertiary sectors are each up 14 %, industry is down by 18 %, agriculture down 4 %, energy production (mainly electricity) is down 28 % and waste treatment is down 14 %. On the challenge posed by the depletion and exhaustion of fossil reserves, and the tensions which may arise from these trends.At the present rate of consumption, these are estimated at 50 years for oil, 65 years for gas, and 260 years for coal. While the world demand will steadily increase, the known reserves and the discovery of new reserves of fossil fuel will diminish.The uranium reserves are limited too, but much remains to be discovered, and techniques are under development to extend the efficiency of nuclear energy towards a much better utilization of the raw material. Renewable energies: Wood burning meets about 4.5 % of the need for thermal energy. The European Commission has asked France to produce 21 % of its electrical energy by renewables by 2010. Today, about 15 % is provided by hydropower and only 1 % by other renewable sources. The overall renewable production in the EU is 17 %. However, some large numbers given by Germany and Spain due to their massive installation of wind power should be reconsidered because only 2200 hours a year are available for wind production, compared to 8000 hours for biomass, for example.France expects to meet the European requests by some energy savings, some biomass burning, some geothermal installations, some solar heating and 2000 to 6000 MW of wind energy, inland and seashore. (But there is growing opposition to installing wind turbines on sites of interest to tourism and agriculture.) Nuclear energy: It provided 80 % of France's electricity in 2002 (437 TWh), with increased energy independence, without CO2 emissions, and at competitive prices which include the treatment of nuclear waste and provision for dismantling. Nuclear waste is well managed and does not pose health problems. What place for nuclear energy tomorrow? Nuclear energy will remain a major component of energy production. Despite the probable extension of the life of France's 58 nuclear units from 30 to 40 years (their average age is now 19 years), it would be prudent to initiate a smooth replacement of the existing units and not wait until Generation 4 is industrially operable. Hence it is proposed to build an EPR as a demonstrator to be put in operation by 2010, followed by other units from 2020.

The uncertainties about the future costs of oil and gas have to be included in this strategy.

This part is treated in a rather synthetic manner and we shall make few comments, as the opinions expressed are, as stated, rather well accepted. Four priorities must determine the policies :- to guarantee access at a reasonable price to all citizens everywhere in the country,- to contribute to the economic competitivity of the country,- to protect and conserve the environment,- to assure safe energy supplies. The energy policy for the next decades will have to face two major challenges :- to mitigate the effect of the greenhouse gases on climate changes,- to mitigate the effect of possible limitations on availability of oil and expected price increases. Thus three major policy lines have to be followed :- to to launch a genuine policy of energy savings, especially in the transportation sector;- to diversify energy sources, insisting upon renewable energies, i.e. that electricity reach the European Community goal of 21 % renewable by 2010; and for thermal energies a 50% increase in the use of renewables by 2015, mainly with biomass, solar thermal and geothermal, all of which offer largely untapped opportunities. Concrete (and) operational measures must be taken to enforce these policies :- education, training and information of the public,- regulations, - tax incentives,- architecture regulations, - certificates of CO2 limitations and emission permits,- examples to be set by public organizations,- more research effort on ways to reduce CO2 emissions and to increase efficiency, including cleaner and more energy-efficient vehicles, to

reduce the cost of renewables, to develop the hydrogen economy, CO2

sequestration, nuclear waste reduction, etc.

The Government will propose an Orientation Law on Energy following these

guidelines:

The Preamble will recall the necessity of mitigating the greenhouse effect,

Title 1 relates to the control of energy demand, by diverse means,

Title 2 relates to the need for social and territorial solidarity, i.e. energy at acceptable prices and with reasonable access everywhere in the country,Title 3 relates to reliability of energy resources including electrical energy exchange with neighbouring countries; this deals with nuclear energy and the distribution network, but also with supplies of gas and oil, and price stability.Title 4 deals with the need to develop renewable energies, one of the principal conclusions of the National Debate. For electricity, the aim should be 21 % renewable by 2010 and the same for 2015; for thermal energies, the goal should be a 50 % increase above the present renewable thermal sources by 2015.There follow three Titles referring to special cases and territories (Corsica, etc.).

The third part concludes with a draft of the Orientation Law along these guidelines.

including comparisons with other Member States.AMENDMENTS proposed to some existing laws and directives to make them conform to the new Orientation Law,COMMENTS on the role of some Government agencies, such as the Agency for Regulation of the Electricity Grid, etc.

STATISTICAL DATA in support of the White Book (tables and graphs).We shall not enter into the detail of these explanations and data for it would lead us into too much detail.

We shall, however, make an exception for the projections of energy consumption in France for 2010 and 2020 according to a trends scenario created by DGEMP. This scenario is an extrapolation of an international project, prepared in 1999 for the International Energy Agency, extrapolating the trends of 2000 assuming that no new policies are introduced which might interfere with the extrapolations, such as a serious attempt to cut back CO2 emissions. Reality will be different, of course, and it will depend somewhat on the options chosen; but it will not be greatly different, because energy trends have a very long lead time and because it takes years to modify the trends.

For example, the trends scenario shows a 33 % increase in energy consumption (mainly for transport) for 2020 and a 20 % increase in primary energy over the present situation. And if nothing were done, CO2 emissions would be 40 % greater in 2020, after remaining stable in the years 1990-1997; this is due especially to the explosion of the transport sector in recent years.

My personal comments are that the White Book is a good document and a good base for an energy policy. The proposed installation by 2010 of a relatively large number of wind turbines is offered to the environmentalists as a trade-off for the nuclear option. Wind turbines are not needed in France and their contribution will be minimal, but the cost will be borne by the taxpayer. Some environmentalists are beginning to see that these toys may be a nuisance and of very little benefit to society, at least in this developed country. On the other hand, pollution due to the transportation sector should be addressed more energetically; hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles for town use, and the transport of trucks aboard freight trains are already feasible, and they must be developed quickly. Let us hope that this political side of the report can be met with common sense at the Parliament discussions.

Michel Lung, Deputy Secretary of EFN. Click here to write to Michel

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