French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday an immediate ban on all new oil and gas exploration leases that will eventually morph into a total ban on drilling by 2040.
Macron’s new announcement dovetails with his previous plan to ban gasoline-powered cars by 2040. France is not a major global oil producer, only pumping around 15,000 barrels of oil per day.
France already has a ban on oil and gas operations that use hydraulic fracturing, a well-stimulation technique that’s unleashed an energy boom in the U.S. Macron opposed fracking on the campaign trail.
Very proud that France has become the first country in the world today to ban any new oil exploration licences with immediate effect and all oil extraction by 2040. #KeepItInTheGround #MakeOurPlanetGreatAgain
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 19, 2017
Macron is trying to take a leading role in the fight against global warming, recently holding his own climate summit in Paris. Macron also offered funding to U.S. climate scientists who would relocate to France.
Though, without the U.S. backing global warming efforts, Macron found few countries willing to anti up and give money to the United Nations Green Climate Fund.
In terms of actual policy, however, Macron has aggressively pushed an anti-fossil and nuclear fuel agenda.
Macron also wants to ban all oil and gasoline cars by 2040, and he planned phase out half of France’s nuclear power capacity in the next eight years — though his cabinet scaled back those plans somewhat.
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