The Head of State had questioned: “Who could have predicted (…) the climate crisis with spectacular effects?” He claims to have wanted to say that “it was even faster than expected”. An assertion again contested by climate experts.
by Matthieu Goar and Audrey Garric
No mea culpa but an explanation in the form of justification. Tuesday, January 17, Emmanuel Macron published a third video on his social networks where he answers Internet users about ecology. From the first seconds, the President of the Republic returned to a controversy that the Elysée had tried to sweep away at the start of the year after the presidential speech of December 31, 2022.
“I believe, obviously, that there is a part of these wishes where I was misunderstood,” said the head of state immediately by showing a message of “Brice” on Twitter. A reference to a passage from his speech of December 31 where he wondered about 2022: “Who could have predicted the wave of inflation, thus triggered? Or the climate crisis with spectacular effects again this summer in our Country? “These rhetorical questions had caused the misunderstanding of many climatologists and authors of the Intergovernmental Experts on Climate Evolution (IPCC). Left oppositions had also criticized this outing by pointing out the preparation of Mr. Macron to manage the climate transition, going so far as to accuse him of playing the game of climatosceptics.
Without making amends or explaining how these words could have been written and then validated, the President of the Republic specifies his thought. “We wanted to make me say that basically, I would never have read a GIEC report (…) and that I discovered in the year 2022 climate disturbances. (…) I have the feeling that there still had a lot of bad faith, “replied the head of state.
He does not quote his opponents at any time. But he believes he was “caricatured”, when he wanted, on the contrary, to send an “ecological alert” message. “What did I just want to say? It is basically, it was even faster than expected, he says while sweeping away any idea of” denial “. Even all those and all Those who have alert for years about the collapse of biodiversity, on the disruption of the climate said last summer: “Look, it goes even faster than what we had predicted.” (…) I did not mean anything more. “
” We were expecting overall to what happened “
In the days that had followed the wishes, some of his relatives, such as the European deputy Pascal Canfin, had already used this argument. According to them, Mr. Macron did not deny the scientific forecasts on warming but had tried to share the feeling of many French people, designed by the virulence of the heat waves of the summer of 2022, the warmest year ever recorded in France, according to Météo- France.
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