Will this health crisis succeed in changing our mode of consumption? A new day on the horizon or beautiful promises, which will vanish as quickly as they arrived? Many specialists, both political and scientific, want an economic recovery that takes environmental and climate issues into account. Utopia, maybe not, but in danger this is certain.
The time of confinement has it as good grace our awakening on ourselves and on the problems of the world, it is a real question to ask. Nature via this chilling prism of a health crisis could thus put us back on the path of reason with regard to the theme of ecology. For ten European environment ministers, this may be the time for change. They called for post-epidemic coronavirus recovery plans to take into account environmental and climate issues. The text is signed by the Austrian, Danish, Italian, Finnish, Latvian, Luxembourgish, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish ministers.
"We should prepare to rebuild our economies by introducing stimulus packages aimed at giving Europe and its citizens renewed and sustainable progress and prosperity", they write in a text published by the site climatechangenews.com.
"We must resist the temptation of short-term solutions in response to the current crisis, which risk locking the EU into a fossil fuel economy for decades. The lesson of the Covid-19 is that it is essential to act quickly. We must therefore keep our ambitions to reduce the risks and costs of inaction in the areas of climate change and biodiversity loss"they also say.
These politicians are calling for a "common European response"within the framework of the European" Green deal "announced by the EU commission, and in particular to"increase investment, particularly in the areas of sustainable mobility, renewable energy, renovation of buildings, research and innovation, restoration of biodiversity and the circular economy".
Is the "Green Deal" in danger?
The bad economic news darkens the ecological transition, which could pass in the background in the famous "next world." With more than 9 million employees on short-time working, the French government is pulling out the checkbook all the time. Our country has been experiencing an unprecedented recession since 1945. Green politicians therefore fear going back on environmental issues, which will not have disappeared with the coronavirus epidemic.
"In 2008, 80% of the plan to end the crisis either turned its back or did not integrate climate issues at all. This risk is still there ", says MEP Yannick Jadot, at HuffPost.
For David Cormand, the former boss of EELV (Europe Ecology The Greens), now a member of the European Parliament, “the important thing is to change the model. This was true before the coronavirus crisis, it is even more so now because this crisis highlights the limits of our development model.”
Basically, two political offers will clash on the question of the next day. The first, defended by environmentalists, is to say that this pandemic requires accelerating the ecological transition. The second is the willingness of some leaders to put aside “green” rules and measures to deal more quickly with the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus.
According to The world, maneuvers are multiplying within the European Union to weaken the environmental ambition carried by the Commission with its "green deal". “The oppositions of yesterday are the oppositions of today. This crisis does not move the lines, but it risks reinforcing the divisions. There is a risk that the Green Deal will take second place”, Regrets in particular Pascal Canfin, the centrist president (and former of WWF France) of the environment committee in the European Parliament in the evening newspaper.
It is clear to the former boss of EELV that salvation lies in “lawareness of the population.”He gives in particular as an example the“ pragmatic ”but“ ambitious and radical ”proposals of the 150 citizens of the Citizen Climate Convention.
"We are going to invest billions in polluting companies without any compensation"
Another deputy came to the aid of ecology, his name: Matthieu Orphelin. The latter, expressed his disagreement with the project which consists in increasing the participation of the State without counterpart in counterparts in the automobile industry or the air, hard hit by the epidemic due to the coronavirus.
In the draft amending budget, voted urgently this Friday in the National Assembly, there is a budget line of 20 billion euros, whose priority objective is "contribute to the economic and financial recovery of strategic companies most affected by the health crisis ". Maine-et-Loire environmental deputy Matthieu Orphelin (ex-La République en Marche, LRM) believes that the government is making a mistake by not making these grants conditional on respecting France's climate trajectory.
"What is going on is absolutely crazy: we are going to vote on 20 billion of State participation in companies without asking for any guarantee or any trajectory which respects the Paris climate agreement! This support is of course essential to preserve our jobs, but it must be made conditional on medium-term commitments. The logic in which the government is is: We must first save businesses, transformation and the climate, we will see later. This reveals a problem of understanding the stakes: we are going to pour billions of public money, without fixing any framework on the next world? The climate challenges did not suddenly disappear. We see that all industrial and polluting lobbies are at work.", comments Matthieu Orphelin, at World.
According to him, Medef wrote to the Minister for the Ecological Transition Élisabeth Borne to question "lmobility and circular economy laws ". "It’s like you don’t learn from one crisis to the next ", he regrets.
An opinion shared by Oxfam, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, who denounced "a check for large polluters without conditions ", according to a press release.
Jane Goodall's cry for help
The famous primatologist Jane Goodall denounces the "contempt for nature" of humanity, which she says is at the origin of the Covid-19 epidemic.
"It is our disregard for nature and our disrespect for the animals with whom we should share the planet that caused this pandemic, which had been predicted for a long time", she said by telephone to AFP."Because as we destroy, for example the forest, the different species of animals that inhabit it are pushed into forced proximity and diseases pass from one animal to another, and one of these animals, brought together by force of humans , will probably infect them".
Collective effort would be our only redemption for the good of the planet and the species that inhabit it.