Faced with soaring electricity prices, the French government has introduced a tariff shield for the year 2022 to protect the most vulnerable households. According to the spokesperson for the French election candidate Valérie Pécresse, this measure will not last forever.
Cordemais thermal power plant in France. Credit: KaTeznik, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, Wikimedia Commons
Faced with soaring electricity prices, the French government has introduced a tariff shield for the year 2022 to protect the most vulnerable households. According to the spokesperson for the French election candidate Valérie Pécresse, this measure will not last forever.
Jean Rottner, former mayor of Mulhouse and current president of the Conseil régional du Grand Est, was recently invited by the association Equilibre des Energies to present the climate program of the candidate for Valérie Pécresse. He said: “We must have the courage to say it, […] it will be necessary to accept, in one way or another, a form of an increase in the cost.”
For the moment, a tariff shield protects the French. According to the Vie Publique website, it should help limit the price increase to €38/year for private customers and €60/year for professionals. Without the measures, the regulated electricity tariff would have risen by €330/year for private customers and €540/year for a professional customer, according to the Energy Regulation Commission.
Other EU countries are facing higher initial electricity prices. According to Statista’s data for 2020, the kilowatt-hour cost €0.1899 in France, compared to €0.3043 in Germany.
The secretary-general of Equilibre des Energies, Gilles Rogers-Boutbien said: “Today, when we look at the map of Europe, we are still very well ranked [in France] for the cost of energy […]. There is perhaps a little teaching to be done to explain to French citizens that they are still advantaged.”
In France, many have spoken in favour of increasing the social acceptability of price increases.
Thierry Bros, professor at Sciences-Po Paris said: “This is a situation that the member states will have to accept and that politicians will have to educate themselves about. We have to understand that if we want to fight […] global warming, it’s going to be expensive.”
Caroline Mini, senior project manager at La Fabrique de l’Industrie, said: “The current situation foreshadows what will happen in the long term, i.e. the increase in energy prices with the price of CO2 rising. The solution lies in profound measures concerning our lifestyles and production methods. Policies on the energy performance of buildings are a step in this direction, but these will not be enough to keep energy prices low.”
