DIncentives rather than constraints, sprinkled with common sense measures. Without a turtleneck or down jacket, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, presented, Thursday, October 6 in Paris, the energy sobriety plan announced by Emmanuel Macron this summer. On the menu, among other things, the 15% increase in the flat-rate teleworking allowance in the public service, the reduction of heating and lighting in public places, sports and culture halls or even the increase in aid for energy renovation. With the objective of reducing total energy consumption in France by 10% within two years.
“Sobriety is a pillar of our ecological planning”, underlined Elisabeth Borne. Before adding: “And yet, a few months ago, few of us were familiar with this concept. But with the war, with the urgency of the energy transition and then the call from the President of the Republic, sobriety became a necessity. » The head of government, however, circumscribed and demined the subject, indicating that this did not mean “produce less and opt for reduction”.
First reduction movements
The phrase first appears in The world September 30, 1979, far from any ecological consideration. The international context was already tense at the time, against a backdrop of the Iranian revolution and the second oil shock. The evening daily then notes in “one”, on the sidelines of a Franco-German summit in Bonn, that “the last meeting, in Paris, of energy ministers seems to have reassured France on West Germany’s fidelity to the energy sobriety commitments made at the Strasbourg European Council”. In France, we don’t have oil, but we have ideas.
On October 16, 1980, The world reviews a series of measures presented to the Council of Ministers, aimed at “reduce energy consumption by 15% in the public sector by 1985”. Through investments in public buildings, schools, swimming pools and gymnasiums. “Respecting a temperature of 19 degrees in offices, reducing the duration of the heating campaign, controlling the fuel consumption of public vehicles, will complete this image of energy sobriety that the public authorities want to give”, details the newspaper.
In the mid-1980s, with the fall in the price of a barrel, the expression disappeared, until 1997. The signing of the Kyoto Protocol, on December 11, 1997, aimed at reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of member countries of the UN, helps to bring it out again. With, all the same, a certain… sobriety, since there are only five occurrences between November 27, 1997 and March 20, 2004. At the end of 1997, Dominique Voynet, Minister for Regional Planning and the Environment, launch a “national plan to combat the greenhouse effect”, enabling energy savings to be made in transport, construction or industry.
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