No construction of a new nuclear reactor, energy consumption halved, electricity production 100% from renewable energies … The fifth edition of the scenario of the negaWatt association will undoubtedly contribute to fueling the debate, more and more lively in the context of the presidential campaign, on the contours of the energy transition. If the association, led by independent experts, will not publish its detailed report until October 26, it unveils its broad outlines on Wednesday October 20.
“We are in a worrying context, between the ecological and societal emergency on the one hand and the observation of an action that is still not forthcoming on the other, explains Yves Marignac, negaWatt spokesperson. The idea is to draw a common goal and to trace a concrete trajectory to reach it. ”
Since its creation in 2001, the association has relied on the same fundamentals, starting with sobriety, a notion often overlooked in the debate on energy, which aims to prioritize essential needs in individual and collective uses. It is a question, for example, of eliminating waste, of containing urban sprawl, of preferring the bicycle to the car… But in no way of “Come back to the candle”.
“Reducing electricity consumption in a building by 30% by turning off coffee machines, air conditioning or screens when there is no one in the offices, that does not reduce living comfort,” assures Stéphane Chatelin, the director of negaWatt. And we insist on the collective aspects: to encourage cycling, we need cycle paths, parking lots… There are public policies of sobriety to be implemented. “
Priority to efficient energy renovation
In order to reduce the amount of energy required to meet the same need, negaWatt also relies on efficiency. These levers are then broken down by business sector. For buildings, the experts propose to favor the rehabilitation of existing buildings rather than new constructions, or to generalize the most efficient heating systems. Above all, they call, once again, to make efficient energy renovation a priority, in order to hope to achieve the objective enshrined in the law of renovating the entire park to a low consumption level by 2050.
Increase in the filling rate of trucks, generalization of electric and hybrid vehicles, decrease in the production of steel, cement and plastic, increase in the number of durable and repairable products, sharp increase in recycling rates, 50% decrease in the quantity of animal proteins consumed, development of organic farming, etc. Thanks to all of these measures, energy consumption could have fallen by 53% by 2050. While this decline may seem significant, it corresponds, in fact, to the objective set out in the national low carbon strategy decided by the government, which consists in “Halve energy consumption in all sectors of activity”.
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