France2030: For an innovation strategy that is also social and ecological

On 12 October, Emmanuel Macron unveiled the main lines of the "France 2030" investment plan.  

30 billion, designed to meet France's major economic and strategic challenges for the coming years. These funds, distributed in the form of subsidies, will be allocated over five years to companies (large groups and start-ups) in order to gain in competitiveness and autonomy in sectors such as energy, mobility, health, food, aerospace and deep-tech.

While it is essential to invest in innovation and disruptive technologies that can strengthen the resilience and autonomy of our society and our economic model, there are several points in this investment plan that are to be deplored:  

• It is regrettable that the focus is solely on the desire to create "French champions" (or European champions), without also investing in the overall transformation (social and ecological) of the existing French economic fabric.
  
• It is regrettable that such public spending is not more conditional on commitments to the common good, in environmental (greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on biodiversity, circular and waste reduction approaches, etc.) and social (integration, value sharing, shared governance, etc.) terms. These compensations should at least consist of the transparent publication of a certain number of extra-financial performance indicators for companies with more than 50 employees benefiting from these subsidies.
  
• It is regrettable that the notion of innovation, which was mobilised considerably during the announcements of this investment plan, only concerns the purely technological conception of the term, leaving aside social innovation or environmental innovation, the spearheads of the new economic paradigm that we must build for tomorrow.  

The Impact France Movement therefore welcomes the government's desire to rely on businesses, and in particular start-ups, to build the economy of tomorrow, but calls for this plan, designed and implemented to meet "the major challenges of our time", not to be limited to certain industrial sectors but to participate more in the overall transformation of our economic model.  

The Impact France Movement is therefore calling for this investment plan to be a real lever for the commitment of the French economic fabric, enabling it to better understand the challenges facing our society and to adopt a fairer and more sustainable development model.