Macron is committing to nuclear energy while Britain dithers

The French are falling back in love with nuclear energy, and so is their president. In 2019, only 34 per cent of people polled expressed a positive view of France’s nuclear programme, a figure that had increased to 51 per cent two years later. The most recent survey revealed it to be 60 per cent.

If Emmanuel Macron had been polled he would have given nuclear energy the thumbs up, a reversal of his position when he was first elected president in 2017. He came to office promising to reduce the share of nuclear power in the energy mix to 50 per cent by 2025. 

The next year he delighted Germany by announcing that France would shut down 14 nuclear reactors by 2035, six of which would be closed by 2030.  

But as the reality of reducing France’s dependency on nuclear energy began to bite, so Macron began to have second thoughts.