France is considering reducing its development aid and environmental credits in 2016, according to the 2016 Finance bill presented on 30^th September during a cabinet meeting. According to official documents, the “Public Development Aid” (APD) mission is allocated payment appropriations of €2.60 billion next year against 2.77 in 2015. The “Environment, Development and Sustainable Mobility” mission is granted an amount of €6.49 billion, against 6.59 in 2015.

These reductions are at odds with the recent commitments of President François Hollande to increase financing for these sectors. During a speech given on 27^th September at the UN General Meeting, François Hollande promised to increase by €4 billion per year the public development aid and this from 2020. He also announced an increase in environment funding from France by €2 billion per year in 2020.

The disappointment of NGOs is great. “This is a rude awakening”, Christian Reboul, Financial Development Manager for Oxfam, commented. “We come out of the UN General Meeting, where a big claim was made: to eradicate poverty in the next fifteen years. François Hollande took over this commitment, but we do not see the implementation of his announcements in the presentation of the 2016 Finance bill from the government. This is the 5^th year in a row of cuts to the public development aid”, he added.

In 2014, France has devoted only 0.36% of its GDP to APD, less than the 0.70% target set by the UN and fulfilled by only 5 countries, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.