Is this finally the consecration of energy sobriety, long a poor relation in the fight against climate change? The end of 24-hour LED billboards, 24-hour offices, SUVs, cruise ships and even private jets? Emmanuel Macron will probably not go that far, but he warns: we are experiencing “a big shift”. As with the Covid-19, will we have to talk about the “world after” the fires and the drought of the summer of 2022?
“The moment we live in may seem to be structured by a series of serious crises (…) and it could be that some see our destiny as being constantly to manage crises or emergencies. For my part, I believe that what we are going through is more of the order of a great shift or a great upheaval, “said Emmanuel Macron during an exceptionally broadcast speech to the ministers, referring to the Ukraine and the climate crisis.
“There is no longer a choice between adaptation and mitigation today”
While, faced with this situation, “our compatriots can react with great anxiety”, he called on the members of the government to “say things”, to “name with great clarity and without catastrophism”. Citing the effects of the war in Ukraine, which began six months ago to the day, and the climate crisis, he highlighted “the end of abundance”, whether it be “cash”, “products of technology”, raw materials or water. Added to this are “the end of evidence”, like democracy, and “the end of recklessness”.
“After the season we have just experienced”, “we will have clear and strong choices to make”, warned the president. “There is no longer a choice between adaptation and mitigation today. It is the “at the same time” resolved “, he added, while the ecological assessment of the first five-year term is frequently denounced as insufficient by ecological associations. He listed the main stages of the new school year with a government seminar next week, largely devoted to ecology, and the launch, the following week, of the National Council for Refoundation. The time is therefore for “general mobilization”, according to the president’s entourage, with a watchword, “energy sobriety”, which will have to be the subject of a bill to accelerate renewable energies. .