Benoit Biteau calls for climate priority in presidential campaign

Paris – 07 August 2026: MP Benoit Biteau is calling for an ecological candidacy in the 2027 French presidential election to make the climate crisis the absolute political priority. The representative of the Ecologiste et Social parliamentary group also criticized the environmental policy of the Macron era as ineffective. With his initiative, he links the upcoming election to a fundamental debate on the relationship between climate, agricultural and economic policy.

Biteau has represented the second constituency of the Charente-Maritime department in the National Assembly since 2024. The farmer and agronomist focuses primarily on agriculture, water policy and biodiversity. His statement therefore directly concerns those areas in which the consequences of global warming are already intensifying political conflicts. Heat, drought and water scarcity are putting farms under pressure to adapt and are escalating disputes over irrigation, cultivation methods and state aid.

The MP opposed an excessive alignment with the positions of the influential farmers’ union FNSEA. Policymaking must take scientific findings more fully into account. Behind this lies a conflict that has been simmering for years: environmental organizations and parts of the research community are calling for far-reaching changes in the use of pesticides, irrigation and agricultural production models. Agricultural organizations, by contrast, warn of additional costs, declining incomes and competitive disadvantages for French farms.

Biteau’s intervention comes at a time when Les Ecologistes are preparing their strategic positioning for 2027. The party has selected Marine Tondelier as its representative for a possible left-wing and green primary. She aims to firmly establish climate and environmental issues within a joint candidacy of the left-wing parties as well. Biteau did not signal a candidacy of his own. Instead, he set out a programmatic expectation for the profile of such a candidacy.

France already has an institutional framework for adapting to global warming. The third National Adaptation Plan, known as PNACC, was published in March 2025 and includes 52 measures. Its reference trajectory assumes warming in France of two degrees Celsius by 2030, 2.7 degrees by 2050 and four degrees by 2100 compared with pre-industrial levels. The plan covers health, housing, infrastructure, agriculture and spatial planning, among other areas.

According to the Environment Ministry, around 80 percent of the planned measures had been launched by February 2026. However, this level of implementation is not enough for ecological political forces. Their criticism focuses on the gap between long-term state planning and short-term decisions on land use, water management, energy supply and agricultural regulation.

Biteau is thus pushing for a campaign platform that closely links climate policy with economic and social decisions. A scenario assuming a France that is four degrees warmer by 2100 already serves as the basis for state planning.