Grandstand. The fight against climate change and the preservation of biodiversity require massive investment in industry and infrastructure. These fights, now known to the general public, are the most important of our century: they surpass any other issue, economic, social or geopolitical, because it is a question of nothing less than the survival of humanity such as we know her.
However, although France has entered the presidential campaign, nothing is known of the concrete intentions of the candidates on this issue. However, these crucial investments involve urgent decisions to be made within five years. Where to find the financial resources? What schedule? What human resources? Do we have skills in France? How to acquire and keep them?
The transition from political discourse to reality remains confused; and, by forgetting reality too much, nothing is done. The time lost from 1990 to 2010 to develop the metro, for lack of decision on Greater Paris or the absence, for twenty years, of orders for new nuclear power plants, are illustrations of this. If we don’t decide, we lose the confidence of voters, and we definitely compromise our chances of developing these projects, due to a lack of skills.
Avoid “new towns”
The experience of the Grand Paris Express (GPE) is rich in lessons: the organization of its project management and that of its financing can be transposed to other territories and to areas other than transport to fight against climate change and against urban sprawl. Because the GPE (40 billion current euros), it is not only 200 kilometers of metro allowing millions of users of Ile-de-France to do without a car, it is also a formidable urban project creating around the 68 future stations, 68 districts (equivalent, in surface area, to 1.4 times Paris) whose accessibility will be comparable to that of Paris. This reconstruction of the city on the city, in the heart of the suburbs, means so many “new towns” and the artificialization of soils avoided.
GPE’s effectiveness is based on its financial model: with an annual budget of 800 million euros, the 200 kilometers would only be put into service in 2080. Authorized to raise debt, and with the same annual budget of 800 million euros, the GPE will be operational fifty years earlier. Why not do the same in other regions for similar projects? A financing plan over several mandates and a borrowing capacity to speed up the work: these are the basic rules of a company. Why should a public investment that is useful for the community be constantly delayed?
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