France plans to pass legislation this year to phase out all oil and gas exploration and production on its mainland and overseas territories by 2040, becoming the first country to do so, according to a draft bill presented on Wednesday.
President Emmanuel Macron wants to make France carbon neutral by 2050 and plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions by leaving fossil fuels, blamed for contributing to global warming, in the ground.
Under the draft presented to cabinet, France will no longer issue exploration permits. The extension of current concessions will be gradually limited until they are phased out by 2040 - when France plans to end the sale of gasoline and diesel vehicles.
A largely symbolic gesture, but sometimes symbols matter.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Friday September 08 2017, @04:51PM (9 children)
A largely symbolic gesture, but sometimes symbols matter.
They either stop issuing E&P permits or they don't. Nothing symbolic about it...
(you need an E&P permit before you start drilling)
(Score: 5, Informative) by bob_super on Friday September 08 2017, @05:13PM (3 children)
The point is that the current production is so low (1 or 2% of the country's usage), it doesn't really change much to stop drilling.
Savings from insulation/solar/wind/electric cars will offset the loss of production by an least order of magnitude.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday September 08 2017, @05:39PM
TFA says they produce 6 million barrels per year. So, yeah, it's not going to save the planet by itself but it's still progress.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday September 08 2017, @07:35PM (1 child)
True, it's largely symbolic in that regard.
On the other hand, it also means an end to fracking, etc., which I imagine is done there as well. And which will likely have a very real impact on water quality and geologic stability.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday September 08 2017, @08:00PM
Actually, fracking has seen so much opposition in Europe (which is no longer a vast empty place where money now trumps consequences) that many countries have banned it, including France I believe.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by crafoo on Friday September 08 2017, @05:39PM (3 children)
No, it's completely symbolic. It will have no real economic impact. It's not the same magnitude of decision of a country like, say Russia, saying they will stop oil and gas production. Although of course France will attempt to pass it off as similar, or even in the same galaxy of political economic decision making. 100% symbolic and really, kind of a joke. Point and laugh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @06:05PM (1 child)
*points and laughs at crafoo the soon-to-be-oilpatch*
cause dinosaurs turn into oil :D
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday September 08 2017, @06:59PM
I thought dinosaurs turn into museum exhibits.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @09:31PM
Yeah, it has no real economic impact. The magnitude of the decision is more on the order of expanding the area protected as national parks a bit. Which is still considerably different from a converse move [soylentnews.org] of comparable magnitude. Point and laugh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 08 2017, @08:55PM
Ah, but zink of ze toureests - ze sweet ring of ze bells on ze bicycles, ze men teepiing z'er 'ats at ze ladies passing by walkiing...