Cabinet post gives veteran opponent of nuclear power platform to push for renewables

5 hours ago by: Michael Stothard in Paris

In The Titanic Syndrome, a 2009 documentary, Nicolas Hulot argues that the capitalist system needs to change to avoid environmental catastrophe. “Our model is not sustainable,” declares the French celebrity activist.

Today Mr Hulot, widely known for his nature documentaries, is France’s energy minister, an eye-catching, and for the energy industry potentially disconcerting, appointment in President Emmanuel Macron’s first cabinet.

In a government that is resolutely free-market and pro-globalisation, the appointment of the nuclear critic has led investors to question Mr Macron’s commitment to a source of energy that provides about 75 per cent of the country’s electricity and employs about 200,000 people.

Shares in EDF, the state-owned nuclear group, which had jumped more than 20 per cent after Mr Macron’s win, propelled by hopes of a supportive policy, lost almost 7 per cent after Mr Hulot was appointed. Analysts suggested Mr Hulot would make the government take a harder line on the sector, pushing EDF to close nuclear power stations and denying permission to extend the life of reactors.

During his long career in the spotlight Mr Hulot, 62, has turned down a series of government jobs and ministerial posts, refusing to serve Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande. On Wednesday he explained that Mr Macron’s government had been the first to offer him a chance to take real action on the environment.

“I think, although I am not sure, that the new political situation offers an opportunity for action and I cannot ignore that,” he said on Twitter.

In an interview with Liberation newspaper last month, Mr Hulot said EDF needed to move away from nuclear and towards renewable energy: “While elsewhere the energy transition accelerates, EDF gets closer to Areva, overinvests in costly nuclear projects like Hinkley Point [in the UK], and does not invest enough in renewables,” he said.

In another interview he said France should have a “medium-term target” of ending the use of nuclear power.

Some people who have worked with Mr Hulot say he is pragmatic despite his documentary films, strident views on the environment and criticism of nuclear power.

Mr Hulot, who ran unsuccessfully as a Green party candidate in the 2012 presidential election, is on generally good terms with the business world. EDF and other groups such as L’Oréal, the cosmetics maker, and Carrefour, the supermarket, are listed as sponsors of his environmental foundation.

He has adopted a moderate tone in recent interviews on specific issues, indicating that, while he is a critic of nuclear power, he is realistic about how quickly the cheap and reliable energy from France’s 58 reactors can be replaced. Asked by Le Parisien newspaper in March about the possible closure of the Fessenheim nuclear plant, which former President Hollande promised but did not implement, Mr Hulot said a shutdown was important but would have a social cost. “We cannot impose a transition by force. The transition has to be done in an acceptable manner,” he said.

One person in the nuclear industry who has worked with Mr Hulot said: “We think that he will be pragmatic about balancing the need to keep France’s strength in nuclear power with a need for more renewable energy as well.”

Others point out that any attempts by Mr Hulot to bring radical change to the energy landscape will be tempered by Mr Macron and Edouard Philippe, the prime minister, who worked as a lobbyist for Areva, the nuclear energy group, from 2007 to 2010. Macron — What next?

Mr Hulot was born in Lille in northern France and, according to his memoir, two dramas marked his early life.

In 1970, his father died of cancer. Then, on Christmas Eve 1974, he went to the basement of the family home to look for a chair and found his older brother Gonzague dead with a suicide note. The family had thought that Gonzague had set out on a trip around the world several months earlier.

Mr Hulot spent a few months at university in Paris before working as a photojournalist in the 1970s, later moving into television and making the Ushuaïa series of environmental documentaries. He has long been involved in environmental politics, particularly efforts to seal the Paris accord on global warming in 2015, and has advised presidents from the right and the left.

Now he has the chance to put some of his advice into practice in Mr Macron’s “neither right nor left” government.