As winter is slowly approaching and with it concerns about France’s energy capacity, the Minister for Ecological Transition wanted to be reassuring.
While all eyes are on France’s energy capacity for this winter, the Minister for Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, Christophe Béchu, was reassuring on Tuesday on BFM TV.
“Obviously everyone has to be attentive and thrifty, but we have enough to hold on to during this winter, all the more so if everyone is careful, avoids wasting and avoids thinking that there would be gestures that would be useless.“, he claimed live from Aude, a department affected by fires this summer. Beyond the efforts required of the French, the minister also seems to be counting on the bill to accelerate renewable energies, which the government wants to have adopted in the fall. “From September, we have a bill that will allow us to intensify the involvement of renewable energies in our country.“, he added.
Indeed, Russian gas supply tensions added to the unavailability of part of the French nuclear fleet are creating concerns about France’s energy capacity for this winter.
“Small everyday gestures»
At the beginning of August, the government had already called on the French to multiply “small everyday gestures“, but without constraint, in order to save energy in the perspective of a cut in the supply of Russian gas in the fall. “We are asking citizens, French women and men, to make an effort“, said government spokesman Olivier Véran at the end of the Council of Ministers, considering that he “there is no small gesturein terms of energy saving. “Every energy that we are collectively able to save today is energy that we will be sure to have available next fall and winter.“, he explained, citing in particular certain examples such as unplugging as many electrical outlets as possible or turning off the light in rooms that are not used.
On the government side, Elisabeth Borne asked, in mid-July, in a circular addressed to her ministers, “exemplaryof administrations in terms of energy savings, with a series of measures aimed at “reduce energy consumption and accelerate the exit from fossil fuels“.
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But France is not the only one concerned. All European countries fear a difficult winter and fear that Russia will cut off the gas in the fall. The European Commission has, in this sense, presented an arsenal of measures which will allow the Twenty-Seven to face a possible interruption of Russian supplies – which constituted 40% of their imports until last year. This plan provides for a 15% reduction in European gas demand to overcome the fall in Russian deliveries, in particular by limiting the heating of certain buildings or by encouraging companies to reduce their needs.
SEE ALSO – Olivier Véran calls on the French “to small gestures” to save energy