Environment minister goes

– French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot resigned yesterday in frustration over sluggish progress on climate goals and nuclear energy policy, dealing a major blow to President Emmanuel Macron’s already tarnished green credentials.

Hulot, a former TV presenter and green activist who consistently scored high in opinion polls, quit during a live radio interview following what he called an “accumulation of disappointments”.

“I don’t want to lie to myself any more, or create the illusion that we’re facing up to these challenges,” Hulot said on France Inter. “I have therefore decided to leave the government.”

Hulot was among the first ministerial appointments Macron made after his landslide election win in May 2017, chosen to shepherd France’s stewardship of efforts to combat global warming on the back of a historic climate accord sealed in Paris in 2015.

But the centrist president has watered down a series of campaign pledges on the environment, including a commitment to cut the share of nuclear power in French electricity to 50% by 2025 and boost renewable energy.

Greenpeace director Jean-Francois Julliard said that Macron had stood up to US President Donald Trump on climate change, but he had “never turned these words into concrete action”. –