Tribune. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published on Monday, August 9, an extremely pessimistic first part of its sixth assessment report. In this context, political opponents and citizens involved did not fail to remind the Head of State of his timidity in environmental matters, not to mention the recent decision of the Council of State, condemning the public authorities to a fine of 10 million d euros for not having effectively tackled air pollution.
Why don’t governments – not only ours, but its counterparts as well – act more head-on against climate change, of which we all know today the degree of danger and profound destabilization that it will cause in the world? Many voices are raised to denounce the submission of those in power to the “lobbies”, to the “industrialists” and to the “powerful”, which is obviously not false, but which remains a simplistic response.
Whatever its political side, the crux of the problem for the State is threefold: first, it would have to take extremely harsh, even liberticidal measures to decarbonize the economy; one could speak of a “war economy”; secondly, it cannot act alone in this area, there must necessarily be coordination on a global scale; finally, it must fight against the growing atomization of societies, where particular interests tend to encroach upon the common interest which would govern such measures.
How, concretely, to decarbonise the French economy, if we remain at the level of our country? Of course, the question could not be asked in these terms, since this movement should be accompanied in the near future by CO2 capture companies, which the IPCC will discuss in the second part of its report.
Prohibitions and obligations
However, consider decarbonization alone. The objective for France would be to achieve a carbon footprint per capita of 3.7 tonnes of CO2e (CO2 equivalent) in 2030, i.e. one third of what it was in 2017.
To do this, the measures to be taken would affect the building (residential or tertiary) as well as mobility, agriculture, energy, consumption and even land use planning.
In order to decarbonize the economy, the State would have to take extremely harsh, even liberticidal measures.
They would concern the daily life of each of us: increase in the renewal of heating equipment, ban on the construction of new single-family homes (all new construction being reserved for collective housing), establishment of a thermal curfew. from 2025, ban on thermal cars in urban centers from 2024 (cities becoming dedicated to cycling and public transport), general limitation of temperatures in homes and offices, obligation for all garden plots to become productive, end of the artificialization of soils, ban on all unjustified flights outside Europe (therefore of comfort or not necessary), division by three of the video stream consumed (less online videos, video games, social networks), limitation to 1 kg of the number of new clothes put on the market per person and per year (compared to 40 kg in 2017), drastic limitation of meat consumption, introduction of quotas on imported products (chocolate, coffee, tea, etc.), and of course, retraining and massive creation of new jobs.
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