While Donald Trump has vowed to bring coal back as a major U.S. industry during his rein of terror, France’s president François Hollande says that his nation will close all coal powered plants by 2023.
The promise to shut down all coal plants comes in response to global efforts to reduce sources of pollution and green house gasses. Coal power plans are a major culprit of Co2 production, and as nations move toward more sustainable energy sources, efforts like this must be made to eliminate inferior alternatives.
Hollande’s commitment appears to be in part a response to the election of Donald Trump in the U.S., as the President-elect has made clear his disdain for climate agreements. After all, the President-elect once declared that climate change was a hoax invented by the Chinese!
Speaking at the U.N.’s annual climate change meeting, Hollande announced that France would stop all coal powered plants in the nation by 2023 as part of the global effort to seek carbon neutrality by 2050.
France is currently an environmental leader, investing heavily in low-impact alternative energy sources like nuclear. Nuclear fission is currently responsible for more than 75 percent of the nation’s energy, and France has had such a successful run of it that now they count energy exports as a major economic boon.
Committments like these from leading nations will be vital in the next four years if President Trump truly does manage to remove the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement and all other environmental efforts. With the U.S. out of the picture, it is likely that the planet is doomed, but with efforts like these from France, there is still a chance.
In the meantime, we must make it utterly clear to our incoming president that we demand to be a part of climate-saving efforts. The president must be made to believe in the science of climate change so that he may act accordingly. It’s not just the next four years at stake – it’s all of humanity.
