Breakdown of Comme la consommation augmente et que le gaz fossile pollue, ce qui est important, c'est l'environnement.
être
to be
et
and
important
important
que
what (unstressed)
Questions & Answers about Comme la consommation augmente et que le gaz fossile pollue, ce qui est important, c'est l'environnement.
Why does the sentence use et que instead of et comme?
To avoid repeating the subordinating conjunction comme (since). In French, when you have two coordinated clauses that share the same conjunction like comme, quand, or lorsque, you replace the second instance with que.
Does the verb after this replacement que need to be in the subjunctive?
Not in this case. When que replaces comme, quand, lorsque, or puisque, the verb stays in the indicative mood, just as it would after the original word. Here, pollue is in the present indicative. Note that if que were replacing si (if), it would trigger the subjunctive!
Could I move the comme clause to the end of the sentence?
No. When comme is used to mean "since" or "because," it almost always has to go at the very beginning of the sentence. If you wanted to put the cause at the end, you would need to switch to parce que or puisque.
Why do we use ce qui here instead of ce que for "what"?