Understand the ecological transition into 3 questions

1/ What is the role of the state?

Face à une menace planétaire, l'échelon des nations n'est pas forcément pertinent... Ce qui n'empêche pas les États de donner, sous forme d'incitations et de contraintes, un cadre général, qui doit ensuite se traduire par des mesures concrètes - et efficaces. Ainsi, l'État français a fixé, depuis une vingtaine d'années, des règles de base. Las, les résultats n'ont pas été à la hauteur des ambitions... Il a donc fallu recommencer. Plusieurs lois ont ainsi précédé la loi Climat et Résilience du 20 juillet 2021. La France s'est ainsi dotée, en 2000, d'un programme national de lutte contre le changement climatique. Puis, elle a adopté un nouveau Plan Climat en 2004. Elle a ensuite continué avec, en 2007, le Grenelle de l'environnement, qui s'est traduit par des objectifs plus ambitieux, inclus dans la Loi Grenelle I en 2009, puis étendus, en 2010, par la loi Grenelle II. Il s'agissait de préparer l'économie à émettre moins de gaz à effet de serre, que ce soit dans les bâtiments (avec des mesures incitatives sur la rénovation thermique) ; les transports, grâce à la création d'un système de taxe favorisant les véhicules les moins polluants ; l'énergie, en dynamisant le développement des énergies renouvelables ; l'agriculture, en misant sur le bio et la réduction des pesticides. Avec, une fois de plus, des résultats peu évalués mais toujours décevants... Se sont donc ajoutés un Plan national d'adaptation au changement climatique, en 2011, et un Plan Climat, annoncé en 2017 par Nicolas Hulot, alors ministre de la Transition écologique, dans le but d'accélérer la mise en œuvre de l'Accord de Paris de 2015... S'il a fallu régulièrement renouveler ces efforts, c'est qu'ils étaient simplement « en phase avec la compréhension du phénomène climatique du moment, estime Barbara Pompili, ministre de la Transition écologique. Et leur seul but était de donner de grandes orientations ». Cette fois-ci, elle en est certaine, la loi qu'elle a portée devrait, enfin, se traduire par des résultats, concrets et d'ampleur, dans la vie quotidienne des Français.

But there are undoubtedly other explanations for these repeated failures."Ecology has long had difficulty entering into the political and parliamentary field," said Juliette Grange, professor of universities in Tours and researcher at the CNRS, who published for a philosophy of ecology, in 2012. Unlike D'Other claims - wages or working time - ecological grievances had no electoral consequences and were not very identifiable and not very audible ”.Are they more today?"The ecological transition is still not integrated into all policies, at the level of each ministry," replies Anne Bringault, operations coordinator for the Action Climate network.Moreover, the High Consulting for the Climate (HCC), which welcomed the government's commitment made in early 2020 to demand from each ministry a climate roadmap, considers that it materializes too slowly..

As for the regions, if 11 of the 13 metropolises have updated a sustainable development plan, according to the latest HCC score - "an advance which must gradually converge with the strategy and national calendars", specifies its report - they suffer from differentAilments, including the fact that certain efforts, concerning the pollution of rivers, in particular, which are going through several regions or several countries, find it difficult to federate.

Remains the local level.Municipalities act, especially since the last elections have devoted the breakthrough of environmentalists, in Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Annecy, Besançon, Poitiers, without forgetting Grenoble, which has as mayor the ecologist Éric Piolle since 2014. But these advances, laudable, are geographically limited ...

2/ What are businesses doing?

Since it is human activity, with its factories, its transport and its ever greater encroachment on nature that is responsible for the current situation, it is up to humans to make a transition to a new model of production andmore frugal and more environmentally friendly consumption.Suffice to say that companies have a major role to play.Especially since employees and consumers press them to act and their responsibilities are constantly expanding.Small or large, many have been equipped, over the years, with a CSR policy (social and environmental responsibility) and more recently, a "mission", provided for by the 2019 pact law, in this sense.Finally, several companies, including Kering, Saint-Gobain and even the Total oil tanker, announced their desire to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 ...

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So many initiatives that materialize on the ground. Thus, while transport remains a very emitting greenhouse gas sector, the ID Logistics group, which has some 21,500 employees, appointed Gilles Delaval CSR director in 2021. "But we have been structuring our efforts for 20 years" , he said immediately. As well internally and with customers, in France and internationally, since the group operates in 17 countries, in the form of waste management (boxes, packaging, etc.), reduction in energy consumption, In terms of lighting in particular, or the operation of the forklifts, equipped with lithium-ion batteries. Without forgetting of course transport vehicles. "A good part of our home deliveries is made with electric or hybrid vehicles, and a third of our heavy goods vehicle fleet works with natural gas or biogas," says Gilles Delaval. We also favor rail-route as much as possible. In addition, we study hydrogen. "Certainly, the sectors must follow so that the carriers can have access to the supplies necessary to operate their fleets and that customers accept the additional cost, at least temporary, that that ages the use of renewables," but we have the means to complete our contract. We aspire, in the long term, to be able to reach carbon neutrality in 2050, ”says the CSR director of ID Logistics.

Another issuing sector, construction and building. If, by its business model, based on the pooling of equipment, Kiloutou can already take advantage of a positive action in favor of the environment, Olivier Colleau, executive president of the group of 6,000 employees, did not want to stay There ... "From 2010, spurred by our employees, we asked ourselves:" And we do we do? " ", He notes. Kiloutou first set a trajectory, periodically updated. Thus, "in 2020, we set ourselves the goal of reducing our direct carbon emissions by 40 % by 2030, in order to reach carbon neutrality in 2050", he details. Thanks to the confinements of 2020, the management has refined its action plan for 2030, first with regard to its direct emissions, mainly due to the use of deliveries vehicles. "The fleets will operate with natural gas, less emissive," says the executive president. In addition, for small equipment, the company is experimenting with new ways to deliver, in the form of a bicycle-trailer. In addition, the group reduces energy consumption and recovers rainwater to wash machines within its agencies. And those that will be built will be even more economical. But remained to take clients to take on. "At 94 %, our carbon footprint is indirectly made up of emissions from our customers, users of our equipment," says Olivier Colleau. In May 2021, Kiloutou organized the "meetings of sustainable equipment", in order to encourage manufacturers to produce more environmentally friendly and support users and the evolution of their operating modes so that they can adopt renewable energies on construction sites. "And we will take stock of the progress in the end of 2021," warns the manager. So many initiatives, like many others on the part of companies, whose consumers are not necessarily aware, but who help work for the good of the planet ...

3/ What is the power of consumers?

If citizens have the feeling that climatic issues go beyond them, they can however act. And many are those who change their consumption and transport habits: purchases of organic products or short circuit, repair and recovery of household appliances, renovation of housing and energy savings, acquisition of an electric car and travel in Train rather than in plane are all these individual and daily gestures. Likewise, labeling, which will be gradually made compulsory by climate law and resilience on clothing and food products, will provide consumers with the certainty that they are manufactured in a responsible and sustainable manner. What guide their choices. Already, some turn away from the products containing palm oil, which contribute to deforestation in Southeast Asia or prefer products developed by environmentally friendly and properly remunerated farmers, such as those offered by "C ' Who is the boss? ».

Beyond their consumption choices, citizens have another power: their savings. In particular in France, since with a savings rate of 14.3 % in 2019, the country is part of the leading peloton in Europe. Savers can certainly go to the 600 labeled products (socially responsible investment, greenfin ...). But they can also act directly. Again, the offer is abundant and the participatory finance platforms are multiplying. Like Lendosphere, launched in 2014 by Laure Verhaeghe, and approved by the Financial Markets Authority. The platform's offers consist, within the framework of the energy transition, of directly funding local projects: photovoltaic or wind farms, methanization or biomass units. "Since 2014, our investor base has funded 280 debt and capital projects via Lendosphere, for a total exceeding 100 million euros," says Laure Verhaeghe. Better still, two thirds of the participants (nearly 20,000 people) regularly return to bring it up to each other, much more, so that their savings "make sense". In addition to ecological motivation, investors do not lose sight of the financial aspect. "The return on investment is part of our model," continues the manager, and the yield is 5 % on average. She also insists on the transparency and traceability of the investments offered by Lendosphere. Which, she emphasizes, "comes to bring a solution to those who seek to reduce the environmental impact of their savings. Indeed, the money placed by the French via banks is indirectly responsible for the emission of 11 tonnes in CO2 equivalent per year, according to an Oxfam report. Is more than for our own consumption (transport, food, clothing, etc.) ... "

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This article is extracted from "T" the review of the Tribune n ° 6 - Planet my love - let's reinforce the damage!October2021 - Discover the paper version