France launches national electrification pact with €10 billion annual state support

French President Emmanuel Macron signed a national electrification pact with some 200 companies from across the French economy at the Elysée Palace on Tuesday, aiming to double the share of domestically-produced electricity in France's energy mix to 60% by 2030, from 30%.

The plan will create or maintain more than 600,000 jobs, Macron said. "This is a major transformation plan involving 6,000 companies and will create or maintain more than 600,000 jobs," he added. France needs to make electrification "natural and desirable," Macron said, "because it's good for purchasing power, it's good for competitiveness, it's good for the country's independence."

The government will double state support to €10 billion a year through 2030, with the aim of reducing France's dependence on imported fossil fuels and boosting the share of electricity produced from nuclear power and renewable energy in power generation, heating, transport and industry. However, the pact did not include any new government funding; it is built around private sector investment pledges. France is currently battling one of the highest deficits in Europe and has little room for investment.

Carmaker Stellantis will invest more than €1 billion to produce a new generation of electric vehicles at its plant in Mulhouse, eastern France, from 2029, Macron said. State-owned utility EDF pledged €240 million to accelerate electrification across several fronts, including preparing industrial sites for major electricity consumers, helping households install heat pumps, purchasing electric heavy goods vehicles and expanding public charging infrastructure. Separately, EDF also announced €80 million specifically to help households acquire heat pumps.

Operators have committed to deploying an additional 240,000 electric vehicle charging points by 2030. Supermarket chain Leclerc said it would install 10,000 charging points by 2035. Transmission and distribution network operators, including RTE, pledged to lay 45,000 kilometres of new power lines by 2030. British energy supplier Octopus Energy announced €150 million to build a heat pump factory in France.

Green MP Benjamin Lucas said: "Better late than never. The president has finally understood, after ten years in power, that we need to radically transform our society." But, he told RFI, the oil lobbies still had the president's ear. "He talks a great deal about ecology and climate but when it comes to concrete action – the bills put before parliament, the decisions actually taken – it's always the fossil fuel lobbies that win in the end."