It was November 15, 2017. Macron stepped down from the podium at COP23 in Bonn, Germany. During his speech, the French president once again portrayed himself as the main opponent to Donald Trump, then the American president. "I want Europe to take the spot of the Americans, and I want to tell you that France will be there," he promised. That June, when Trump announced his country's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, Macron released a video in which he said "make our planet great again," twisting Trump's slogan and scoring a worldwide success. In the middle of the COP pavilions, he triumphed. Activists stopped him to take selfies, visitors applauded him, everyone congratulated him.

"A real rock star," recalled Pierre Cannet, director of public affairs at the NGO ClientEarth. In 2017, Cannet was working for WWF and, along with other NGOs, was waiting to interview the new French president at the French pavilion. A few days earlier, then-French ecology minister Nicolas Hulot had announced that the government was abandoning its plan to reduce the share of nuclear power in the energy mix to 50%. "It wasn't really a dialogue, it was more like a lecture," said Cannet, of his meeting with Macron. "At the time, he was really at the center of the international game." But the storm of French criticism was already brewing.

Unlike American President Joe Biden, Macron will attend COP28 in Dubai. On December 1 and December 2, at a plenary session followed by working sessions and bilateral meetings, he will be pushing for a tripling of renewable energies and a tripling of world nuclear power production by 2050; a move away from fossil fuels, especially coal, with an end to private investment in this sector; the preservation of carbon sinks and biodiversity; and climate finance, since "no country should have to choose between the fight against poverty and the fight for the climate," to quote his latest mantra. According to his office, he is also expected to extol the environmental planning implemented since the start of his second five-year term, and "urge his partners" to imitate this strategy.

Will anyone listen to him? Macron's popularity may have slumped, but his speech is still eagerly awaited. The French president remains one of the most proactive leaders on the international stage. "I'm very concerned about the spirit that is beginning to prevail, including among the members of the G20 (...). I'm warning everyone, we're not there yet," he declared in New Delhi, India, on September 10, at the end of a lackluster climate summit.

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