Do not abuse the air conditioning, close the doors of stores when it is on… The government announced Tuesday Act II of its sobriety plan to encourage, and not oblige, the French to continue to reduce their energy consumption this summer and throughout the year.
The threat of winter power cuts is already far away, but the government is calling on the French not to relax their efforts to sustainably reduce their consumption of electricity, gas and fuel, eight months after the launch of its sobriety plan in the midst of the energy crisis.
As in October 2022, the plan remains on incentives rather than regulation and coercion. Objective: to develop in everyone “good energy sense”, indicated the Ministry of Energy Transition to AFP.
Among the 14 measures of this act II, a call to order: in offices and stores in particular, the air conditioning must not be triggered below 26 degrees.
Mayors are also asked to ensure the proper application of the decree of October 2022 which requires businesses not to leave the doors open when using an air conditioner.
A very active sector in the summer, the performing arts are also committed to reducing their energy consumption, welcomes the ministry, which cites the example of the Main Square festival in Arras which will be powered without a generator.
The government intends to see fuel consumption reduced, in particular by encouraging companies to ask their employees to drive at a maximum of 110 km/h on the motorway, instead of 130. Twenty-seven CAC 40 companies have committed to this. , he argues. An instruction already given to state agents this fall.
The measure reduces its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% while saving 20% ??fuel, highlights the government.
Thereafter, the penalty for the purchase of vehicles “the most CO2 emitters and the heaviest” should be “very significantly increased”.
Calls for voluntary sobriety, but also soaring energy prices have reduced gas and electricity consumption by 12% since August 1, 2022 (excluding weather effects) compared to 2018-2019, according to ministry figures. These savings made it possible to avoid power cuts this winter, when the French nuclear industry was in difficulty.
In detail, since last August, cumulative electricity consumption has fallen by 8% and gas consumption by 16.9% (industrial and residential sectors combined, excluding gas power plants) compared to pre-Covid years. .
However, the government has not planned to tighten its initial objective of reducing consumption by 10% by 2024, “which already seems ambitious”, preferring to make it permanent throughout the year. An assessment will be made “over the whole of the year to see if it is necessary to strengthen the efforts”, specified the ministry to journalists.
The executive is aiming for -40% of energy consumption altogether by 2050, and according to the manager of the electricity transmission network RTE, sobriety is “no longer an option” for a successful energy transition.
To develop its plan, the government conducted a consultation.
All of the 40 CAC 40 companies are committed to adopting quantified consumption reduction targets and making them public. Thirty-seven of them will think about lowering their consumption by rationalizing telework. “The option of having a fixed day of telework in the week makes it possible to close the building”, according to the minister’s office.
Sport is also put to use: “from the 2023-2024 season, the granting of the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 club license, which makes it possible to benefit from television rights” – an annual windfall of several hundred million euros euros – “will be conditioned in particular” on criteria of sobriety with in particular a reduction in consumption of 10%.
20/06/2023 13:17:00 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
