"The response seems very timid": what place for the environment in the presidential race?

After a summer marked by extreme weather, the political response to the climate crisis looks timid and falls short of what French people expect, say experts to Euronews. Huge wildfires in Gironde, in the Landes and in the Var. Repeated heatwaves across the country. A period of severe drought hitting agriculture hard. This summer, France has been severely tested by the elements. Last winter, the country had already been through several months punctuated by a series of weather systems and storms (Goretti, Ingrid, Nils, Pedro), triggering major flooding across mainland France. With only a few months to go before the next presidential election, environmental issues are therefore expected to take on unprecedented importance in the political debate. Long championed by the left, the topic has become unavoidable, forcing the right and the far right to grapple with it too. Because today, "given the delays and the seriousness of the situation, France no longer has a choice: it must adapt, and quickly", warns the NGO Réseau Action Climat, which criticises the record of successive recent governments that, it says, "have failed to take the necessary measures to prepare the country for the effects of climate change". And yet, warnings have been issued for years. As early as 2013, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) stated that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal and, since the 1950s, many of the changes observed are unprecedented over decades to millennia". The report also stressed that "the years 1983 to 2012 are probably the warmest 30-year period of the last 1,400 years in the Northern Hemisphere". Politicians out of touch This is an issue that more and more citizens are factoring in. In a survey published on Monday 24 August (source in French), Ipsos reveals that 64% of French people felt "anxiety or fear" for the health of their loved ones and 48% for their own health during the summer of 2026. The polling institute also notes that French people "expect solutions first and foremost from public authorities": 79% of respondents want public measures to help the population cope with heatwaves. For its part, a study by Ademe published last year estimated that 6.3 million French people are moderately eco-anxious, showing early symptoms that should not be allowed to worsen. "2.1 million are believed to be highly eco-anxious, with intense and chronic symptoms" and "420,000 of them have mental health that is genuinely at risk", the study (source in French) noted. The problem is that these concerns are not necessarily heard by political leaders. "Most parties and presidential candidates seem out of touch with the day-to-day reality of French people who are being seriously affected" by these events, says Anne Bringault, programme director at Réseau Action Climat, speaking to Euronews. "Faced with an unprecedented challenge for humankind and for biodiversity, with the many deaths caused by heatwaves, the economic losses, especially for farmers, the homes destroyed by fires and the parched landscape, the political response seems very timid and nowhere near matching French people’s expectations or their perception of the concrete impacts of climate change", she adds. Speaking on France Inter (source in French) on Tuesday, Jean-Marc Jancovici, founder and chairman of the Shift Project think tank, was even more scathing, arguing that the political class is "in a state of denial" about climate change. Causes pushed into the background A view shared by Eva Morel, secretary-general of the NGO QuotaClimat. "We get the impression that elections are moments when ecology really struggles to find a way through", she laments to Euronews, before trying to explain why interest is so limited. "In fact, politicians themselves are not encouraged to understand the issue or to put forward ambitious proposals, because the media reception of their statements on the subject is generally quite favourable as it is." She goes even further. "Above all, we cannot expect there to be a constructive debate on the issue if, whenever climate disasters occur, we only talk about the facts and do not try to understand the underlying factors – both the causes and the structural solutions that could help address them", stresses Eva Morel. She cites the events of summer 2026, which sparked discussions focusing "mainly on the facts and not necessarily on explanations". "So, for example, we talked more about the climate – which is hard to avoid – but much less about fossil energy", she regrets. "From that point on, we cannot really expect the proposals put forward by the various candidates to be convincing when it comes to tackling the root of the problem", the expert continues. Politicians doing… politics "Which of the candidates has put the fact that the world is going to change at the heart of their programme? None of them", criticises Jean-Marc Jancovici. In his view, the programmes of would-be or declared candidates in the next presidential election lack coherent environmental measures. "You find contradictions everywhere", says the chairman of the Shift Project. For Eva Morel, this situation is due in particular to how hard it is, in "a political system that rewards demagoguery, to expect candidates to confront a crisis that profoundly destabilises citizens’ lifestyles and still come up with an appealing vision". "Right and centrist parties stick to their usual lane, like Édouard Philippe, who chose to foreground immigration issues during" his visit to Mayotte, "for example", says Anne Bringault. Eva Morel agrees: "Even just on adaptation, the right as a political family still does not see it as a political issue." As for the left, "electoral opportunism, in a context of competition to win green votes, seems to play a significant role", continues Réseau Action Climat’s programme director. "What we see is that environmental platforms on the left are still more substantial than those on the right, and that has been the case for several years. […] What we find interesting is the extent to which political discourse mirrors scientific discourse. And today, that seems to be happening more on the left." National Rally, champion of disinformation On the other side of the political spectrum, the National Rally "is trying to hurriedly dress itself in green by pushing simplistic solutions that are unrealistic financially and technically, such as rolling out air conditioning everywhere", analyses Anne Bringault. "Basically, they react to the hot topics of the day. And since climate has now become one of those hot topics, they focus on it. It is purely opportunistic", adds Eva Morel, who acknowledges that the National Rally has rowed back on its statements questioning the credibility of the IPCC or the reality of global warming, even if this is "not enough". "The problem is that their political framework has not integrated environmental issues at all. They do not have proposals that genuinely offer protection from the consequences, let alone address the causes." She also accuses Jordan Bardella’s party of spreading, in her view, misleading information. "These narratives are deliberately crafted because they work with public opinion, exploiting moments that attract a lot of attention. […] It has been shown that this is a blocking strategy that works. It blocks the implementation of public policies that are supposed to be effective", explains the expert, who points to the example of low-emission zones. "And what we fear is that alongside this obstruction, there is also an effort to discredit political opponents and environmental defenders, essentially by demonising them. And in doing so, they push solutions away from the problem, even though the problem itself is highly visible", concludes Eva Morel.