Emmanuel Macron has said he understands the complaints of anti-government protesters who have blockaded French roads and petrol depots over fuel tax rises, but insisted he would not change his policy.

In a speech on France’s transition to renewable energy on Tuesday, the 40-year-old president addressed accusations that he had failed to listen to the hundreds of thousands of people who over 10 days had blockaded roads across France and who marched last weekend in Paris, where barricades burned on the Champs Élysées.

“We must listen to these protests of social alarm,” Macron said, acknowledging that workers in areas where people were forced to use their cars were struggling to make ends meet.

The demonstrators – known as “gilets jaunes”, or yellow vests because they wear high-visibility motorists’ jackets – began protesting against a rise in fuel taxes but also attacked what they called Macron’s elitism, saying he was out of touch with real voters and a “president of the rich”.

This spontaneous, grassroots tax revolt – organised on social media and without any clear leader or trade union backing – caught the government off guard and is seen as dangerous for Macron, whose approval ratings have dipped in recent weeks.

In a rare display of humility and deliberate empathy with the anger among voters living outside of France’s big cities, Macron said his administration needed to be smarter in its policymaking to avoid a “two-speed France” emerging, where workers in outer-urban areas felt left behind.

“I have seen, like many French people, the difficulties for people who have to drive a lot and have problems making ends meet at the end of the month,” he said.

He acknowledged the increase in diesel tax, which kicked in just as pump prices were rising, had inflicted more pain than anticipated.

Macron has deliberately tried to set himself apart from previous French presidents by insisting he would never make a U-turn on policy because of street protests. He said the street demonstrations would not force him to change tack on taxing fuel as part of a drive for cleaner energy.

“We must not change course, because the policy direction is right and necessary,” he said. “But we need to change how we work because a number of our citizens feel this policy course is imposed on them from above.”

He added: “I believe very profoundly that we can transform this anger into the solution.”

Thousands of protesters stage a demonstration against rising fuel prices in the Champs Élysées in Paris . Photograph: Jan Schmidt-Whitley/Le Pictorium/Rex/Shutterstock

The protests, which opinion polls show have significant support among the French public, have worried the government as it gears up for the next phase of Macron’s policy programme to overhaul French pensions and the welfare state. Protestors at the barricades have railed against what they see as Macron’s unfair move to ease taxes on the very wealthy and on businesses, accusing him of ignoring the working poor.

The growing complaints that the taxation system is unfair – with a majority of French people saying in polls that taxes worsen inequality – is a problem for the government, which has vowed to reduce France’s high public spending.

Macron said the French people could not demand better public services and also expect lower taxes.

He suggested a review of the fuel tax every three months, though the details of how that would be carried out were not clear.

He also used the energy speech to say France would develop renewable energy, and would reduce the amount of energy it derives from nuclear. But the transition from nuclear will happen more slowly than environmentalists had wanted.

Macron was criticised for failing to fully act on fighting climate change when his popular environment minister quit in fury in August.