Emmanuel Macron during his televised address on July 14 explained that he had asked “public administrations and large groups” to prepare a plan to return to “a logic of sobriety”.
The state will prepare this summer “an energy sobriety plan”, to face the risk of shortage linked to the war in Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron declared Thursday during the July 14 televised address.
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“We must collectively enter into a logic of sobriety”, “we are going to prepare a plan to put ourselves in a position to consume less”, declared the Head of State, explaining that he would ask “public administrations, large groups to prepare a plan”.
“We are going to try to pay attention collectively, in the evening to the lights when they are useless, we are going to make a plan for the public administrations, we are going to make a sobriety plan in which we are going to ask all our compatriots to commit, and we are going to make a sobriety and load shedding plan – it is gas and electricity we are talking about here – with our companies”, he specified.
Emmanuel Macron also stressed that France was “in the process of reconstituting [ses] inventory [de gaz] to have at the end of the fall almost 100%”. “We will be there”, he assured.
“A plan means constraints, choices”, acknowledged the Head of State, stressing that “obviously we would have quantified objectives”. But “already, we consume a little less than last year, it’s both good to pass this course, and it’s very good for the climate and the independence” of the country, he insisted .
Because globally “we must accelerate the response” to the crisis of global warming. “It’s an emergency and it’s already there,” said Mr. Macron, referring in particular to the fires in the Southwest favored by the very strong heat wave in progress.
“The first thing is sobriety, the second, developing renewables,” he continued. “And we are going to pass an emergency law this summer to reduce delays. We have to go much faster, today it takes ten years to draw up an offshore wind farm plan, we have to go much faster to produce offshore wind but also solar”. “We know the difficulties with onshore wind power because there are problems of acceptability,” he added.
The government recently launched three working groups to improve energy sobriety in the administration, businesses and establishments open to the public. The objective is to establish a roadmap to reduce energy consumption by 10% within two years compared to 2019.
Other countries have already taken certain measures, like Germany, which is far more dependent on Russian gas than France. The Bundestag has adopted a savings plan: more heating above 20 degrees in winter and more hot water in individual offices, for example.