This February 10, the head of state is not yet officially a candidate for his own succession. Two months before the first round of the presidential election, he came to present, in Belfort, his vision of the energy future of France. During this speech, he will make major announcements on the revival of the nuclear sector or on the development objectives for renewable energies. But the very first project concerns neither the atom nor the wind turbines: it is first a question, he declares, of “gain sobriety”for “reduce our energy consumption by 40%” by 2050. The word is out: “sobriety”. It will henceforth be presented as one of the pillars of the President’s energy program.
By taking the word on its own account, Emmanuel Macron sends a signal to a left-wing electorate and to environmentalists. But, more broadly, this borrowing reveals the way in which this old notion ended up imposing itself in the public debate. Of the “happy sobriety” from Pierre Rabhi (1938-2021) to the first papal encyclical on ecology, in 2015, from the work of the International Energy Agency (IEA) to that of the climatologists of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on the Evolution of the climate (IPCC), sobriety seems more and more essential, while remaining eminently divisive. Synonymous, for some, with a powerful and exciting lever for inventing a model that is more respectful of the environment, it acts as an absolute foil for others, who fear the end of progress and growth. Desired or feared, it questions, in any case, the very foundations and organization of our society.
This questioning is not new. From the 19the century, the industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism gave a political dimension to the concept. “In the 1970s, after the publication of the Club of Rome report [association internationale de réflexion sur les problématiques de développement durable] arose the idea that our exponential growth and our insatiable desire for wealth could lead to our downfall”, remind him circle of reflection The ecological factory. Disseminated in France by the thinker André Gorz (1923-2007), this idea is first found in the notion of “degrowth”, both for ecology and against capitalism. But, little by little, the term “sobriety”, less politically connoted, is gaining ground.
If there is no precise and shared definition, it implies moderation in the production and consumption of goods and services and the abandonment of excessive or superfluous practices or uses. This term can be confusingremarks Eloi Laurent, researcher at the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE). It suggests that we have lived well and should now live reduced. However, it is the opposite: we must learn to live better, not to live less. Learn to live with the biosphere, not against it. »
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