Olivier Babeau is president of the Sapiens Institute and, moreover, professor of management sciences at the University of Bordeaux. He recently published
The New Digital Disorder: How Digital Explodes Inequalities
(Buchet Chastel, 2020).
We face a triple ecological, economic and political challenge. How to preserve the environment and the climate without losing the benefit of prosperity? In a world where competition for resources is increasing between countries with very different political regimes, how can we maintain sufficient independence so that France does not have its values and priorities imposed on itself - what is called sovereignty? Ecology, economic development and political autonomy go hand in hand. To sacrifice one of these three pillars is to weaken the other two. Unfortunately France makes hasty and unbalanced choices on many occasions.
Faced with competition from countries adopting a slower pace of change in practices, France, which most often adopts maximalist versions of the new constraints, is finding itself in difficulty.
Olivier Babeau
In the energy field, abandoning nuclear power in the illusory hope of replacing it with renewable energies would make us dependent on foreign gas suppliers. This is the mistake that Germany made and that we are about to reproduce. Our not very pragmatic vision of the energy transition makes us forget the economic consequences (foreseeable increase in the cost of energy harming our growth) and political (increased dependence on hydrocarbon producing countries) that a switching to energy sources whose intermittence is for the moment without solution.
The problem also arises in agriculture. Faced with competition from countries adopting a slower pace of change in practices, France, which most often adopts maximalist versions of the new constraints, is finding itself in difficulty. We take pleasure in charging our farmers with constraints that are greater than our neighbors by systematically "over-transposing" European rules. The current regulatory project to limit the contribution of heavy metals to the soil (an objective of course desirable in itself), which goes beyond the latest development in European regulations, is an eloquent example of this dynamic of overbidding which weakens our agriculture, which is already one of the safest in Europe. The risk is that we lose market share, captured by countries in theextreme environmental approach. However, a contraction of the agricultural sector would limit our food autonomy, yet identified as a priority. The agricultural sector is still, despite difficulties, a provider of jobs. Acting brutally, without a balanced transition, will result in farm closures and increased production costs. As with energy, this environmental policy would also make us dependent on certain producer countries, and would amount to outsourcing the conditions of our food self-sufficiency to them.will result in farm closures, and increased production costs. As with energy, this environmental policy would also make us dependent on certain producer countries, and would amount to outsourcing the conditions of our food self-sufficiency to them.will result in farm closures, and increased production costs. As with energy, this environmental policy would also make us dependent on certain producer countries, and would amount to outsourcing the conditions of our food self-sufficiency to them.
Ecological demand, economic development and sovereignty can only progress together.
An error in the tempo of their rise in power and it is the whole that is weakened.
Olivier Babeau
We could multiply the examples of sectors in which the energy transition, obviously desirable, loses sight of its economic and geopolitical effects. Poor and dependent on countries with less scrutiny, we would not, however, remain virtuous for very long… Ecological demands, economic development and sovereignty can only progress together. An error in the tempo of their rise in power and it is the whole that is weakened. We must commit to a reasoned ecological transition, which allows us to preserve the future. We must bring about solutions coordinated with the stakeholders, which combine both environmental imperatives, development objectives and the maintenance of our sovereignty.