The new French government has sought to further burnish its green credentials with the announcement it is to stop granting licences for new oil and gas exploration.
In his first major intervention since Emmanuel Macron’s election victory, the ecological transition minister, Nicolas Hulot, told the broadcaster BFMTVthere would be “no new exploration licences for hydrocarbons”.
Hulot said the government would extend Macron’s promised moratorium on fracking projects to cover all oil and gas exploration. He also hinted that the government would increase taxes on diesel and look to streamline decision-making on environmental issues so they could be made “faster”.