Public concern about the environment and government desire to keep up with novel technology are fuelling a new generation of French companies developing alternative power. By ROSS TIEMAN

The most public face of French concern about global warming is that of newspaper photographer turned TV presenter Nicolas Hulot. Hulot, whose pedagogical TV travelogue Ushuaïa Nature has become a national institution, published a book last November intended as a wake-up call on climate change to the country's political class.

"Global warming will provoke health catastrophes, social dramas, epidemics," he warns. "Scientists no longer doubt it, public opinion is convinced, why are our leaders waiting to act?"

According to one survey, 43% of the French population would like him to run for president. That helps explain why politicians are beginning to take him very seriously indeed. The most popular socialist candidate for this year's presidential election, Ségoléne Royal, has said she is 'ready to work with' Hulot. A rival socialist candidate, Laurent Fabius, went so far as to promise he would make Hulot number two in his government if he was elected president. Nicolas Sarkozy, the leading centre-right candidate for the presidency, respects Hulot's stand and has himself championed the idea of an enlarged environment ministry with some responsibility for energy and transport. Hulot, meanwhile, has called for a deputy prime minister whose job would be to check all legislation for its environmental impact.

Concern about global warming is widespread in France. A TNS Sofres poll for regional newspapers found, for example, that 83% of those living in the south-west of France were worried about the future of the planet. But Jean-Marc Jancovici, a leading French expert on climate change, says many people fail to make the connection between their patterns of consumption – for example, use of motor vehicles and purchases of cheap clothes from China – and global warming. So when 20,000 people marched in London last November to protest about inaction on climate change, the turnout in Paris was only 200. And, he says, politicians are failing to make the link for them.

The French tend to look to the government, rather than the private sector, to sort out such problems. And to be fair, thanks to policies dating from the 1973 oil-price shock, France has been a relatively good citizen with regard to global warming. Lacking sizeable fossil fuel reserves, the government built the world's largest nuclear generating park and backed it with hydro-electric power, providing a cushion of zero-carbon capacity that is only now reaching its limits as economic growth picks up. For the same reason, tax policy has long favoured diesel-powered cars, which achieve more kilometres per litre, and its national car champions, PSA Peugeot Citroën and Renault, are among world leaders in high-compression diesel technology.

In 2004, when the French government drew up its Climate Action Plan and Energy Strategy Plans, French carbon dioxide emissions were actually 0.4% below the 1990 baseline. The two plans, essentially designed to set out how the Kyoto accords will be implemented, foresee that renewable energy will account for 21% of capacity by 2010, compared with 11% today. They also set out a portfolio of complementary measures, from subsidies and tax breaks on household insulation to bolstering the use of biofuels, but many of the tougher proposals, such as reducing motorway speed limits, have never been implemented.

Nonetheless, last July, François Loos, the industry minister, set out how the core shift in energy production was to be achieved. Within five years, he said, France's wind-turbine capacity must rise from an expected 1,000 MW at the end of 2006 to 13,500 MW, some 4% of the total. By 2010, the government wants 21% of total production to be generated from renewables (see figure below). Raising the number of wind generators from 850 in the middle of last year to 7,000 won't be easy, especially given the current global shortage of wind turbine manufacturing capacity. But to motivate the private sector, the government fixed the price at which Électricité de France (EDF), the dominant, part-privatised generator, must buy wind power at €82 per megawatt hour for the next decade. Entrepreneurs have responded enthusiastically. France counts four significant wind-generating companies: EDF Energies Nouvelles, Théolia, Séchilienne-Sidec and Aerowatt.

Despite its name, EDF Energies Nouvelles, floated in November 2006, is the brainchild of 65-year-old, French-educated Greek entrepreneur Paris Mouratoglou. An economist turned serial renewable energy entrepreneur, Mouratoglou set up a hydro-power business in 1979, subsequently co-founded French-owned US generator Sithe, and then in 1991 launched into wind generation with SIIF, which became EDF Energies Nouvelles in 2004 when EDF joined him as a 50% partner. They floated the business last November to raise cash to bolster its generating capacity of 1,015 MW to 3,000 MW by 2011. Hard on Mouratoglou's heels is Jean-Marie Santander, founder of quoted rival Théolia, an aggressive minnow which last October paid €105m for German peer Natenco. Though it has only 72 MW of installed capacity, Théolia has more than 1,500 MW of projects. A nationwide race is underway between wind-generating companies for the windiest sites.

Blessed by generous sunshine in the southern half of the country, France is also beginning to take solar seriously. In June, the government doubled the price at which EDF is obliged to buy photovoltaic power from householders with solar panels to 30 euro cents per kilowatt hour, and added an installation subsidy worth 25 cents per kilowatt hour. That complements income tax breaks for homeowners equal to half the installation cost of solar water heating, a cheaper technology. Homeowners are already complaining of long delays to obtain hard-pressed installation technicians. The solar market leader is a family firm, Clipsol, founded in 1979 by André Jean. It has recently been growing, like the fragmented market, at 50% a year, but still counts only 120 staff.

Historic reliance on private contractors to deliver clean water, process sewage and remove rubbish has also served the French environment well, making it easier to introduce and oversee exacting recycling standards. In consequence, France is blessed with two world-leading water and waste firms, Suez (currently pursuing a merger with Gaz de France) and Veolia Environnement, which together process 58% of the 550 kg of rubbish produced by the average citizen every year. They have state-of-the-art technology and some pioneering plants, and should both see revenues climb steadily as governments in France and elsewhere tighten recycling requirements.

The strategic energy plan also anticipated by two years a European Union directive designed to boost biofuels through tax breaks. The proportion of ethanol and biodiesel in vehicle fuels has doubled since 1994 and is programmed to rise from 1.75% last year to 5.75% in 2010. This is manna for French farmers, a powerful lobby. There are now 21 biofuel plants operating or under construction in France, many of them developed by farmers' cooperatives to provide new markets that will secure their revenues. This year, 500 pumps offering biofuels are due for installation on fuel station forecourts, offering motorists a green option.

The driving force of both government action and private entrepreneurship appears to be not altruism but enlightened self-interest. France is one of only two net exporters of electricity in Europe, and wants to retain that position. Its car-makers, waste disposal companies and nuclear plant specialist, Areva, are global champions too. But a government report last September recognised that France has fallen behind in new energy technologies such as wind and solar power, and that these, together with biofuels and low-emission car engines, will be key technologies for the future. That explains why green technology has been identified as a strategic sector to be encouraged by the government in the years ahead, alongside those such as information, communication, and nano- and biotechnology, whose promise – not always yet fulfilled – has already been widely recognised by private investors.