The mayor of Lille Martine Aubry pleads, faced with the crisis following the epidemic of Covid-19, for a “plan of ecological reconstruction” of 50 billion euros per year, in a forum published in Le Journal du Dimanche.
"Saving our businesses and our jobs is the priority of priorities," insists the former Minister of Employment and Solidarity, but if the recovery plan "is based on revenues from before, the crises will resume as before, sooner or later . " This is why, in his eyes, "the second immediate priority is investment in the energy transition" .
“We must make a resolute commitment to reach (a low-carbon society) before 2050. I dream of a bustling France: renovation of housing, public transport, rail freight, solar and thermal power stations, product recycling, organic and local agriculture. .. ” , underlines Martine Aubry, in the running for the second round of the municipal elections on June 28.
“In ten years, let's achieve what we had planned to do in thirty. Public spending that reduces ecological debt is certainly essential. Here, local authorities have an essential role to play. In a few days, the new municipal councils will be set up; their boxes are full of projects to transform our modes of production, consumption, exchange ... which will come up against their finances, tested by the Covid-19, "she adds.
The mayor of Lille therefore proposes “the launch by the State, from September, of a call for ecological reconstruction projects for an amount of 50 billion euros per year, the projects of the selected communities benefiting from a financial contribution of 80% state ” .
This "doubling of the climate effort" is "deemed necessary by the experts to achieve carbon neutrality". "You have to finance it with debt, which is an investment and not a debt when it finances an asset," she argues.