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In fact, untitled “The Commission calls for a climate neutral Europe by 2050” published in November 28th 2018 opts for a “clean planet for all”. To support the proposal of the Paris Agreement that climate change is a crucial topic that needs to chair a round table. Thus, they judge necessary to pinpoint the need of living in an appease planet without any climatic disruptions and the necessity to use renewable resources. So “the aim of this long-term strategy is to confirm Europe’s commitment to lead in global climate action and to present a vision that can lead to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050”. The Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete asserted that “…it is necessary to meet the long-term temperature goals of the Paris Agreement… The EU will support those more impacted by transition so that everyone’s ready to adapt the new requirements of a climate neutral economy”. It becomes a must to set strategies to urge the European citizens to favour an ecologic transition to fight against the gas emission and global warming.

Aware of this situation, the current French President Emmanuel Macron and his government have decided to raise the fuel in France as an energy strategy; however they are facing the rumbling of a movement named “yellow vests”. Convinced that these taxes are not only meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change, the movement gained more and ground since November 17th 2018. They judged unfair the rise of the fuel taxes to discourage the vehicles in order to use public transports seeing the raise of the fuel taxes (23%) in one year.

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As a matter of fact, a series of protests have burst up in France hence the riots noticed these days that caused around 10 deaths according to CNN, 2841 civilians and 1000 wounded police officers. They were initially protesting against the rise of fuel taxes, but their claims have evolved through the months. Actually, better pensions, the reduction of university fees, high wages are the current affairs. To better deal with the phenomenon and to mark their imprint, they are asking nowadays for a referendum to be included in the societal questions that shakes French minds recently according to the principles of democracy.

Around 280,000 protesters in their first demonstration, this movement has completely upset the Fifth Republic’s notoriety these last months. Their policies are now seen as siding with the well-off instead of reaffirming their will to change the fate of the left-behind provincials who are forced to live in the same way as in a deterministic world where the futures of people are closely linked to their environment with a minimum of revenue seeing the expensiveness of the life in France. This is a way of telling to the ones who’re living in the rural areas to look for another mean of transport.

In a nutshell, are Macron’s government going to find a compromise with a referendum to definitely make an agreement with the yellow vests in order to avoid a bitter electoral defeat in the coming European elections in May 2019 or are the yellow vests a group of looters nurtured by violence without any ideology if they cannot make an agreement with the Government?

Sources

https://www.euronews.com/2018/11/16/what-s-all-the-fuss-about-the-french-fuel-tax-hikes-euronews-answers

https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/international/negotiations/paris_en

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-6543_fr.htm?locale=FR

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1061809/EU-news-Emmanuel-Macron-France-2019-yellow-vest-European-election-latest

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/22/europe/france-yellow-vest-protest-intl/index.html

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201812111070566448-yellow-vests-austerity-eu/

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-yellow-vests-and-why-there-are-so-many-street-protests-in-france

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46577598

https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/11/29/european-commission-calls-for-net-zero-by-2050/

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