At Davos on Tuesday, January 20, Emmanuel Macron made an impression not only with his sunglasses, but also with significant remarks about France and Europe, which he described as being committed to “independence, to the United Nations and to its charter.” In this old country and on this Old Continent, people still prefer “respect to bullies” and “science to plotism,” declared Macron.

This was not the first time Macron implicitly criticized Donald Trump’s United States by positioning himself as a defender of science. In the current climate of rising climate-skeptic populism, while the American president slashed research funding, banned entire fields of study and repeatedly claimed that global warming is a “hoax,” the French president is right: European countries have remained refuges for scientists.

But Europe and France, under pressure from far-right movements seeking to exploit public anger against elites, have not been immune to subtle backsliding. The flattering comparison to the US should not obscure recent environmental setbacks made in disregard of scientific truth. On January 29, the Sénat passed a bill to reauthorize hydrocarbon research and extraction in France’s overseas territories – “the main victims of ecological self-righteousness.” This initiative, led by a centrist group close to the government, contradicts both the 2017 Hulot Law banning new fossil fuel exploitation projects, Macron’s commitments and the advice of scientists who call for a halt to new drilling to limit climate change.

You have 49.17% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.