Efficiency, sobriety, development of renewables and nuclear power. The four pillars of the energy transition were laid out by Agnès Pannier-Runacher when she was Minister of Energy. They are still relevant in the Attal government. Bruno Le Maire revisits them one after the other. After visiting a nuclear power plant, the Minister of the Economy gives pride of place to energy sobriety and efficiency. The objective is to almost halve French consumption, to increase it from 1,600 terawatt hours (TWh) per year to 900 TWh.
Savings are being sought almost everywhere, particularly in improving the recovery of waste heat, estimated at 100 TWh. This is heat produced by industries and data centers and which could be used to heat homes. Bruno Le Maire offers an insurance fund to support these long-term investments.
Bruno Le Maire is also targeting the renovation of private and public buildings, notably with 3.5 billion euros in credits for Ma Prime Renov’. In total, more than 10 billion euros are spent every year on energy renovation. Bruno Le Maire therefore wants to measure its effectiveness. “Energy and budgetary efficiency are not contradictory,” he said this Monday, traveling to Buc (Yvelines) at GE HealthCare. The minister wants every euro spent on the climate to be “useful and effective”. Bercy will publish the results of this accounting every year. Based on the results obtained, arbitrations between expenses will be put in place.
“Fraud must be treated even more harshly,” adds Bruno Le Maire. I won’t let any energy renovation scam go by.” Hundreds of companies have declared work, which was never carried out, to receive this aid. “We will increase the control rate by 20% in 2024 and 30% in 2025,” adds the minister. A series of measures will be put in place to improve the effectiveness of controls, starting with the unification of controls carried out by several entities: the DGEC, the DGCCRF and TRACFIN. The different services will be able to share the data they have and access, for example, fraudulent bank accounts. “We will also intervene well in advance to stop the payment of any aid that has not been justified, until the doubt is resolved. This is essential, because once paid, it is much more difficult to recover the money,” adds Bruno Le Maire.