Mobility, heating, teleworking: a few days before the presentation by the government of an energy sobriety plan, the collectives of senior civil servants are multiplying proposals to reduce energy consumption in the public sector.
First to publish its “
contribution
” at the end of last week: the think tank Le Sens du service public.
To reduce the energy bill of swimming pools, he suggests lowering the water temperature to 25°C, rather than closing them as the operator Vert Marine did for a few days in around thirty municipalities.
The Sense of Public Service, which brings together executives from the administration, communities and hospitals, also invites the development of teleworking "
much more massively than today
".
A potentially explosive idea, because the unions are worried in this case about a transfer of the heating bill from the administration to the agents.
The renovation of public buildings, digital sobriety or the electrification of car fleets should achieve more consensus.
Awareness
Conducted in parallel with the working groups launched by the government and the avenues put forward by the unions, the reflection of the "
think tank
" testifies to the current boiling around sobriety.
"
There has been an awareness of the energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine (which has increased the price of gas and electricity) and the rationing that is coming
," underlines François Thomazeau, one of his founders.
“
The minds are ripe for a changeover.
The responsibility of the public authorities is to take advantage of this context to change habits
,” he added to AFP.
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It remains to organize this "
switch
" so that it lasts beyond the objective set by the government this summer - to reduce France's energy consumption by 10% by 2024. "
Public discourse, in particular on sobriety, must come out of a hunt for opportune waste and specify its structural ambition
”, for the long term, insists for its part in a note to be published Le Lierre, an association which wants to make public action more ecological.
It suggests introducing “
progressive energy pricing ”: the first kilowatt hours consumed would be marketed at “
very accessible
” rates
, while excessive consumption would be “
penalized
”.
In terms of mobility, Le Lierre offers a penalty for thermal vehicles and in particular SUVs (sports utility vehicles) over 1,200 kilos, and conversely a bonus for light vehicles.
But barely four years after the "
yellow vests
", sobriety should not only rhyme with constraint or austerity, warn the authors of the note, entitled "
Organizing desirable and collective sobriety
".
Means commensurate with ambitions
Le Lierre, like Le Sens du service public, therefore calls on the State to provide itself with the financial means for its ambitions.
In Nevers at the beginning of September, the Minister of the Public Service Stanislas Guerini announced that the 5.7 million public officials would be trained in the ecological transition.
For Johan Theuret, member of Sens du service public, the "
credibility
" of the measure depends on the release of sufficient financial resources, preferably from the 2023 budget. According to the government's roadmap, the 25,000 state executives will have to be trained “
by 2024
”, before their colleagues in the territorial public service (12,000 executives) and the hospital (4,000) follow suit “
by 2025
”.
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In the immediate future, the co-founder of Sens du service public, Émilie Agnoux, pleads to target training on agents "
who will have the most impact
" on energy savings: "
managers of car fleets, catering
" , distribution network maintenance staff... While some public service professions are struggling to recruit, sobriety is "
a real managerial and organizational challenge for all administrations
", she continues.
As during the Covid, "
the agents find the motivation to tell themselves that they will be able to be useful in the face of the difficulty
", welcomes Émilie Agnoux.