For many years now, the players involved in the environmental transition have been used to navigating the ups and downs of current events. But this time, the vacuum is unprecedented. Since the European election campaign, the dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale and the resignation of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's government, large parts of environmental policy have come to a standstill. Announcements of plans have been postponed, budgetary frameworks are obsolete and proposed legislation is on hold.

To the dismay of organizations, researchers and local authorities, who no longer have any identified contact to discuss the medium term, Environmental Transition Minister Christophe Béchu is only a caretaker minister. "We don't know what kind of government we will have, we don't really know what the future holds, what will survive, what will be launched, whether there will be cuts or investments," explained Bastien Cuq, energy manager at the Réseau Action Climat, a network of NGOs fighting climate change.

As the summer draws to a close, the main focus of this year's budget discussions will be financial. Like all other ministries, the Ministry of Environmental Transition is in limbo. At a press briefing on August 20, the prime minister's office unveiled a "zero-value" budget, virtually identical to that of 2024. "A purely formal exercise designed to get the administration at Bercy [the Economy Ministry] working," asserted a source within the Environmental Transition Ministry, who is nonetheless a little worried. According to figures published by the media outlet Contexte which Le Monde got confirmation of, the Environmental Transition Ministry on August 20 saw a slight increase in its funding (+ €1.2 billion), but also cuts in certain important sectors (- €1.5 billion in commitment authorizations – expenditure programmed over several years – for the green fund). On August 29, the prime minister's office put these figures into perspective by stating that green fund appropriations for 2025 would be increased by €300 million, while specifying that "aid for electric vehicles" would be reduced by €500 million.

This scenario would be particularly bad for the "green budget." Every finance bill is crucial to environmental efforts, with funding needing to increase if France is to meet its commitments, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels. After securing an increase of €7 billion for 2024 last fall, the secretary general for environmental planning suggested that this year's effort should be even greater, with a potential increase of "several billion" to reach a further €10 billion.

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