The French lower house of parliament has approved a law that provides for the gradual abandonment of the exploration and production of oil, gas and coal by 2040, the Ecology Ministry of France said in a communique.
French Ecology Minister, Nicolas Hulot, was quoted in the communique as saying: “This law links the legislation with the obligations taken within the Paris climate accord.”
By 2040, French authorities are expected to not only refuse issuing new licenses for the exploration and production of hydrocarbon fields, but also to limit the extension of old licenses.
Therefore, France is going to gradually abandon the production of hydrocarbon fuels by 2040.
The Paris Agreement, signed by more than 190 parties and ratified by 171, was adopted within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 2015 and came into force in November 2016.
The main goal of the Paris accord is to tackle climate change by keeping the rise in a global temperature below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
At the One Planet Summit convened recently in Paris, the World Bank Group announced that it would no longer finance upstream oil and gas after 2019.
World leaders lauded the Paris agreement. However, some environmentalists and analysts have criticized it, saying it is not strict enough.