Macron pleads for "reasonable" and "non-punitive" ecological "sobriety"

June 19, 2023

Emmanuel Macron on Monday defended an economic and social model based on “innovation”, “industrial strategy” but also “common sense”, to achieve “reasonable”, “transparent” and “non-punitive” ecological “sobriety”. , against a system where it would be necessary to “give up growth”.

Asked about calls to reduce the place of the plane for ecological reasons, during a visit to the Bourget Air Show, north of Paris, the Head of State pleaded for his strategy.

“Well-organized, if I may say non-punitive, sobriety, understood by all, shared by all, reasonable, which makes everyone make an effort, avoid what is useless and reduce emissions, it is good,” he said.

“The one that consists of saying we have to stop everything in a way and we have to give up growth, I don’t think it is reasonable”, he added, defending the “creation of wealth” which makes it possible to “finance the innovation you need to decarbonize”.

“We who are already in current account deficit, how do you expect us to finance our social model if we no longer create wealth?”, he questioned, anxious not to “ask people to choose between a model social demanding and the climate”. “You have to do both, at the same time there too.”

The President of the Republic recalled his remarks from last summer, when he had, in a controversial formula, evoked “the end of abundance”, to broaden his remarks.

“Common sense allows a lot of sobriety”, he estimated, invoking the “reflexes” and the “civility” which make us “turn off the light” when we leave a room or not heat a place when we are not s find “not permanently”.

“The less we give people the feeling that we are forcing their lives, because it is already difficult enough, the more we have their support”, insisted Emmanuel Macron.

“The sobriety in which I believe is rather that (?) which is based on a form of common sense, on the transparency of the information we have, on an awareness that our resources have become more scarce.” “If we do it intelligently, with common sense, there is no need for recommendations from the state because I don’t want to live in a country where the state tells you what you have to do every second. “, he said again.

In mid-May, Emmanuel Macron sparked a controversy by considering that it was no longer necessary to “add” environmental standards after the application of the European Union’s Green Pact, pleading for “stability” in this area. A “break” which had been very strongly criticized, especially among environmentalists.