For drivers, it was proposed to neutralize the impact on pump prices by reducing taxes accordingly, which would require regular tax revisions. For buildings, only low-income households would be compensated through an increase in the energy check.
This compensation was deemed insufficient by Valérie Létard, the Housing Minister at the time. “When does one become modest or not? We’re talking about millions of affected people,” she questioned, when asked by POLITICO.
While she doesn’t recall being consulted on this letter, Valérie Létard remembers raising concerns. “Of course, there’s a need to transpose,” but without affecting households that have no alternative but to heat with gas, she explains, mentioning tenants, especially in social housing, who pay bills but cannot change the boiler. She highlights a problem, in her view, of “timing, between an ETS implemented by 2028 and a decarbonization of housing extending until 2050.”
Meeting in 2027 (or indefinitely)
This ministerial initiative led to a meeting between the concerned cabinet directors, according to several government sources of the time. Several application scenarios considering the most vulnerable were explored, but the executive pair ultimately chose to do nothing, as reported by POLITICO last July.
François Bayrou and Emmanuel Macron felt they lacked a parliamentary majority for such a transposition and feared providing ammunition to opposition parties ahead of the presidential election. Selling a similar carbon tax with the promise of using the money for transition proved difficult, concedes a senior official today.
Despite European deadlines, there’s still no plan to transpose ETS2. “For now, there’s no schedule [due to a lack of] political opportunity,” admitted the office of the Minister for Ecological Transition, Monique Barbut, during a June meeting with journalists.
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