Rising temperatures, France’s responsibility for CO2 emissions, rising sea levels… During an interview lasting almost thirty minutes, Christian Gerondeau, member of the office of the Mobilité Club France, a member association of the International Automobile Federation, opposes the conclusions of the IPCC, an intergovernmental group of experts, whose work is authoritative on global warming and minimizes the warnings of scientists.
The video of the interview, broadcast on the YouTube channel of TVLibertés, a webtv founded by a former member of the National Front, cumulates 135,000 views since it was posted on June 2. 20 minutes reviews the arguments put forward by Christian Gerondeau, who is also a member of the Association des climato-réalistes.
- What Christian Gerondeau said: “The IPCC titled its latest report […] warming is accelerating. When we look at the curve of the earth’s temperature, since 2015 the temperature of the earth has dropped. »
Christian Gerondeau attached a graph to his demonstration. The graph is based on data from Britain’s University of East Anglia and Britain’s weather forecasting service, the Met office. Their analysis contradicts that of Christian Gerondeau: “2022 is the ninth consecutive year where the temperature is equal to or greater than 1.0°C compared to the pre-industrial period (1850-1900)”, noted the Met office in early 2023.
Temperatures are expected to vary slightly from year to year. The long time makes it possible to show the increase in temperatures. “The long-term warming is evident. Since the 1980s, each decade has been warmer than the previous one and this trend is expected to continue”, adds the Met office, which underlines that “the influence of natural variability [ces variations de températures d’une année sur l’autre] throughout the 173 years of observed temperatures is low compared to current warming due to human-induced climate change”.
- What Christian Gerondeau said: “The IPCC writes that the sea will rise 15 meters. How high does the sea rise? The IPCC says it: two millimeters per year. […] After fifty years, you will have 10 centimeters. »
“It is false, answers Valérie Masson-Delmotte, paleoclimatologist, research director at the CEA (Atomic Energy Commission) and member of the IPCC. The rate of sea level rise has accelerated since the 1990s and was 3.7mm per year over the period 2006-2018, it is even beyond 4mm over the last decade. This phenomenon is already having consequences, remember the site of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon: uninhabited islands forming part of the Solomon Islands have already disappeared.
- What Christian Gerondeau said: “The weather varies as it has always varied, no more and no less than before. […] If we go back to the Romans, it was a relatively warm period. Afterwards, you had around the year 500, a cold […]. In the year 1000, there was a warming, we called it the climatic optimum […]from 1350 to 1850 there was a period of cold […]. And then, we have this chance, since 1850, to experience a warming of 1 degree. »
There have indeed been temperature variations in the past. However, “we observe that the climate has been warming for 150 years and much more quickly than what data from the natural archives show”, remember the CEA. “This trend has accelerated since the early 1980s and is still continuing today, with global warming reaching 1.1°C at the Earth’s surface for the past decade (compared to 1850-1900). »
The CEA adds that “at the end of the last glaciation, the Earth’s climate warmed up by around 5 degrees in 10,000 years. Current global warming is at least fourteen times faster! “.
- What Christian Gerondeau said: “In the atmosphere, there are 3,200 billion tons of CO2. France, we emit 0.16 billion tonnes. What we emit each year is 1/20 thousandth of atmospheric CO2. Can we really have an influence when we are responsible for the 1/20 thousandth? »
France is not the country that emits the most CO2. According to the site our world in data, France ranked ranked 22nd in the world in 2021. France emitted in 2021 on its territory “about 418 million tonnes “CO2 equivalent”, that is to say of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases. », Details the High Council for the Climate. These emissions thus represent “approximately 6.2 tons of CO2 equivalent per inhabitant”.
However, to know the complete carbon footprint of France, it is also necessary to take into account the weight of the imported goods. The carbon footprint thus climbed in 2020 to 8.2 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per inhabitant, still according to the High Council.
France “is in the top ten of the countries that have contributed the most to cumulative CO2 emissions”, also recalls Valérie Masson-Delmotte. It is the eighth country in the world, according to our world in data. However, it is this accumulation of emissions “first determines current and future warming”, underlines the scientist.
The argument of France’s low weight in global CO2 emissions comes up regularly in speeches relativizing the human impact on global warming, such as noted it a 2020 study spotted by France 24.
- What Christian Gerondeau said: “The electric car is 50% more expensive than a classic car”
Electric vehicles are “heavier and more expensive on average, recognizes Olivier Vidal, research director at CNRS, at the Institute of Earth Sciences in Grenoble, because they copy large thermal SUVs, there is nonsense there . An opinion shared by Pierre Lefaivle, transport manager of the Climate Action Network. This group of ecological associations defends electromobility under certain conditions to limit greenhouse gas emissions. This barrier to purchase is largely linked to the choices of European manufacturers who favor premium vehicles, analyzes Pierre Lefaivle. This trend is also true for thermals, with, in ten years, the average price of new buildings rising from 20,000 to 27,000 euros. In France, the cheapest new electric vehicle is just over 20,000 euros, it drops to 15,800 with the ecological bonus.
- What Christian Gerondeau said: “You will always need a 400 kg battery. In a kilo of electric battery, there is 30 times less energy than in a kilo of gasoline and, that we will not change anything, it is physical laws. »
The weight of an electric battery is generally between 250 kg and 300 kg, we wrote last year. More powerful electric car models logically have a heavier battery to ensure their autonomy: Tesla batteries weigh between 430 kg and 600 kg. 400 kg, so it’s a heavy battery.
Lighter batteries exist: the Dacia Spring, which weighs less than a ton, has a 186 kg battery. “It has a range of 200 km, explains Olivier Vidal, who drives this model. So, it takes about 1kg of battery to go 1 km. With 1L of gasoline, we cover 15 km. If it is true that we have 30 times more energy in 1 kg of gasoline than in 1 kg of battery, it must also be said that the efficiency of an electric motor is twice as great as that of a heat engine, which produces a lot of heat for nothing. That too is physics! he exclaims.
- What Christian Gerondeau said: “The electric car will have an extremely low autonomy which is not a problem for going to work every day, but if you want to go to the end of France and in particular on the days of the big departure you you won’t be able to charge them on the highway. »
For Pierre Lefaivle, of the Climate Action Network, electricity should not be thought of as the only solution. “We have to get away from the idea that the electric vehicle will replace the thermal vehicle as we have it today, it is not possible and it is not desirable”, he supports, it is necessary “a more global overhaul of our mobility”. On a long journey, this may mean, for example, thinking about it in stages, having a system of fast, well-designed and efficient terminals. We must also encourage and develop public transport such as the train.
In France, the transport sector is the leading emitter of CO2, with more than 30% of greenhouse gas emissions according to the 2021 edition of the France, Europe and World Climate Key Figures, published by the Department of Data and Statistical Studies of the Ministry of Ecological Transition. “It’s the only sector that hasn’t fallen for 15 years,” says the RAC transport manager. We are really at an impasse. Our current mobility system does not meet the challenges of reducing atmospheric pollution, reducing greenhouse gases and also access to mobility; 4 million people have no access to any mobility [d’après le baromètre des mobilités en France de la Fondation pour la nature et l’Homme]. »
- What Christian Gerondeau said: “An electric car emits a lot of CO2 during manufacture”
The life cycle analysis makes it possible to evaluate all the environmental impacts of the construction of a vehicle. But even taking into account the analysis of its entire life cycle, “the electric vehicle pollutes three to five times less than a combustion engine vehicle”, emphasizes Pierre Lefaivle, based on a tool developed by the Association transports et environment (ATE). The latter makes it possible to compare the difference in CO2 emissions between thermal and electric vehicles.