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 Delegation of France 


France has been a crucial member of the United Nations and one of the famous participants in the climate change action since the inauguration of the UN in 1945. France is also a permanent member of the security council in which they have a large responsibility for decisions regarding climate change and its influence on other countries. There are many impacts of climate change over the world and especially, increase in temperature, risk of flooding, rising sea levels, and uncertain changes in the frequency and severity of storms are the problems in France (Climate change knowledge Portal, 2021). To solve the impact of climate change over the world, France has decided to take action and vote for the solution by attending the Global Climate Summit (GCS). According to the Worldmeters, France only has 0.93% of Carbon Dioxide global emissions even though France has a population of 65,530,590 people, which ranks it 22nd in countries by population (Worldmeters, 2022). Also, the energy consumption is 450.80 billion kWh (World Data, 2022). The common way to produce electricity in France is nuclear and oil energy. "France derives about 70% of its electricity from nuclear energy, due to a long-standing policy based on energy security." (World Nuclear Association, 2022). Additionally, France has participated in various previous agreements such as the Paris agreement, and the Kyoto protocol, and has taken part in numerous climate change conventions in order to find the best solution. 


Efficiency transport can make the movement of people and goods more efficient with less time, cost, and energy. This solution can make France a more sustainable country. France has a lot of transportation, such as trams, trains, and buses. France has been successfully working on improving public transportation in order to make it more efficient. For example, France introduced small vehicles that mainly used electricity, which reduced Carbon dioxide and improved vehicle efficiency. Less reduction of Carbon Dioxide can mitigate the impact of climate change. Since carbon dioxide absorbs heat, which causes an increase in temperature on the Earth (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2022). However, efficient transportation has some obstacles for the less developed country due to economic factors. It will take some cost to transition from a different type of vehicle such as a standard vehicle to an electric vehicle. For this reason, it is not the most realistic way to implement the solution of efficient transport in all countries over the world, but introducing efficient transportation has benefits that can solve the social issue. Therefore, the delegate of France supports and implements this solution. 


Efficiency electricity is the second solution in this resolution. Same as the efficient transport, efficient electricity can make and do the tasks more efficiently with less energy in order to eliminate energy waste. "Energy efficiency brings a variety of benefits: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing demand for energy imports, and lowering our costs on a household and economy-wide level" (EESI, 2022). France has been working on The National Low-Carbon Strategy, which the government seeks to reduce the energy consumption in France by 50% and reduce 75% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Also, The 2021-2030 Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan is planning to improve 32.6% of energy efficiency which equals a final energy consumption target of 120.9 Mtoe in 2030 (Odyssee Mure, 2022). By  reducing the energy waste, it can mitigate the impact of climate change. In order to produce the energy, it requires burning of fuels which will produce greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide. Reduction of greenhouse gasses will trap the heat in the atmosphere and cause global warming (Energy Facts Australia, 2022). Equivalent to efficient transport, efficient electricity has some economical obstacles for less developed countries. However, France believes that current solutions can make it able to reach the goal of electricity efficiency in the future. 


Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Hydrogen is the third solution in this resolution. CCS Hydrogen is the combination of CCS and Hydrogen. "Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is a way of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions by capturing and subsequently storing the carbon dioxide (CO2)" (IEAGHG, 2022). Recently, the significance of hydrogen as a clean energy source has increased because hydrogen comprises an estimated 75% of all mass in the universe. With the combination of CCS and hydrogen, it can produce the hydrogen without reducing the pollution and increasing the impact of global warming (Taylor, 2020). On February 4th, 2022, France's French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) proposed a strategy for Decarbonization of Industry and received €5.6 billion to invest in methods for their carbon neutrality goal. Decarbonization is one of the ways to remove the carbon emissions from processes through CCS. Even though CCS has proven to be a hard solution to take action, CCS Hydrogen is a realistic solution for France with the funding and it will solve the problem. 


Fuel Switching is the fourth solution in this resolution. Fuel switching is one of the methods to replace the inefficient fuels with clean, sustainable, eco-friendly fuels. Natural gas is one of the easiest fuels to switch from inefficient fuels. "Natural gas is a fossil energy source that formed deep beneath the earth's surface" (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2022) It can produce a lot of energy compared to other energy and cheap and switching inefficient fuel to the natural gas has beneficial economic impacts.  However, the use of natural gas will produce pollution and increase the possibility of greenhouse gas emissions. Although fuel switching has some benefits economically and efficiency, it has more disadvantages than advantages such as accelerating global warming, and health issues due to the air pollution. Therefore, France believes that fuel switching is not a good solution to solve the issue of global warming all over the world. 


Nuclear power is the fifth solution in this resolution. Nuclear power uses nuclear power to produce energy. Since 1930, nuclear power is one of the main energy source in France  and  "France derives about 70% of its electricity from nuclear energy, due to a long-standing policy based on energy security." (World Nuclear Association, 2022). Also, France is planning to develop their nuclear power sector and aims to build six more power plants (World Nuclear Association, 2022). Nuclear energy is one of the most controversial energy sources and it has many advantages and disadvantages. Nuclear power can provide energy with high energy density and zero carbon emissions which can promise the energy future and reliable power source (Lane, 2021). However, there are many disadvantages and some accidents happen because of nuclear power. For example, the Chernobykl and Fukushima nuclear disasters are the world's biggest nuclear power accidents and it killed many people and destroyed many environments. Therefore, many countries consider nuclear power not a suitable solution for solving the climate change issue. However, France has been working on developing nuclear technologies and a long-standing policy based on energy security and in fact, France relies on 70% of their energy source as nuclear power. Thus, the delegate of France supports and implements this solution. 


Wind Electricity is the sixth solution in this resolution. Wind Electricity is one of the ways to generate electricity by using wind turbines. It has two types of wind electricity, offshore and onshore. The advantage of wind electricity is that it is sustainable, since wind electricity is using wind to generate the electricity and the source of the wind is unlimited, free, and renewable source. Also, in France, there is a policy that The Prime Minister in France announced that the goal set out in the draft multiannual energy plan in 2019 for offshore wind will be increased by 1 GW3 per year (Bretagne Développement Innovation, 2022). According to the International Energy Agency, wind electricity is a significant source of renewable energy in France, accounting for nearly 28% of all renewable energy capacity. In 2017, France set a new record for wind power industry development with over 1.6 GW of newly installed wind power capacity. There are also some disadvantages of wind electricity. For example, to build and to maintain the wind electricity requires high cost which will make it hard to establish and implement the wind electricity in less developing countries due to the economic reason. Also, wind electricity uses a natural resource, wind, which will cause unstable generation since the wind relies on its weather. Despite these disadvantages, wind electricity has higher possibilities to solve the issues. Reducing the cost of wind electricity can make it more accessible to all countries. Therefore, the delegate of France supports and implements this solution. 


Forest storage is the seventh solution in this resolution. Forest storage is one way to store the carbon dioxide by using forest. "Forest absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions" (National Conference of State Legislature, 2016) According to The Economist, forests now cover 31% of France and the forest cover has doubled from 1830 to 2015. Forest storage is available for most countries especially in tropical areas because forests are vital to life on Earth, which means every country has at least some forests. However, there are some disadvantages caused by lack of managing the forest, such as reduction of biodiversity and non-native and potentially invasive species will invade (Reid, 2018). Although there are some disadvantages of forest storage, delegates of France support and implement this solution since there are more advantages with small risks. 


Solar energy is the eighth solution in this resolution. Similar to wind energy, solar energy is a natural renewable source of energy. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, Solar energy is "energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy" The advantage of solar energy is that it is sustainable, since solar energy is using the sun to generate the electricity and the source of the sun is unlimited, free, and renewable source. Despite the advantage of solar energy, renewable energies in France only has 3.4% of solar energy (International Trade Administration, 2021). This fact is showing that solar energy might not be feasible in France's climate action. Also, to establish the objects of the solar energy, such as solar panels, will require cost which makes it not accessible to the less developed countries. However, it's not mean that solar energy is not a suitable solution, since the cost of most energy sources has dropped by 71% in the last decade (Chrobak, 2021).  Thus, the delegate of France believes that solar energy can change the stance of renewable energy in the future and can replace it with non-renewable sources. 


Hydropower is the last solution in this resolution. Hydropower is a largest source of renewable energy and uses natural flow of water to generate electricity (Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, 2022) The advantage of hydropower is that similar to other renewable sources, it doesn't release any pollutants such as greenhouse gasses and carbon dioxide. France is the third largest European producer of hydropower followed by Norway and Turkey and has an installed hydropower capacity of 25,557 MW, and 10% of its energy comes from hydropower (IHA, 2019). Compared to other solutions, hydropower is quite cheap in the long run, which makes it accessible to most countries and renewable. However, the initial cost of hydropower is expensive since it requires building a dam to stop running water. This is a challenging part for less developing countries due to the economic reason. Supporting the initial cost of hydropower for less developing countries is one of the ways to step closer to the goal. Current facts of hydropower as a new solution in France shows that it can be a feasible solution throughout the world. 


In the Global Climate Summit, there are many solutions to solve the impact of climate change over the world. Even though there are some resolutions that are not feasible for France such as fuel switching, France signed up for all of the solutions, because most solutions' advantages exceed the disadvantages of solutions. Not only can one country change and mitigate the impact of climate change all over the world, every country must support and cooperate with each other to find the best resolution and solve the impact of climate change. 



Works Cited  

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