Sobriety.
The word is on everyone's lips, while energy prices, forests and inflation (+ 5.9% over one year) are soaring.
While energy prices are the cause of 38% of inflation, the latter is largely due to the rise in food prices due to the war in Ukraine, but also to the drought.
In the short term, the winter is going to be tough, especially when the tariff shield comes to an end.
But, in the longer term, investments can be profitable.
“All economic progress has been made under duress.
This crisis can generate innovation,”
launches Thomas Friang, founder of the Open Diplomacy Institute, which has just organized the 3rd Sustainable Development Meetings.
Public awareness
“The challenge is to go from a sobriety suffered to a sobriety chosen”
, believes the latter.
The French are not as resistant to it as one might imagine.
If we are to believe a survey by the association Destin commun, 72% want to do more on a daily basis to fight against climate change and 73% of them consider sobriety desirable.
The electroshock produced by the drought, fires and floods this summer has accelerated the awareness of the general public.
"We can do without useless gadgets, promote the circular economy and the sharing economy and gain in energy efficiency"
, judge Thomas Friang.
But
“there cannot be sober behavior without a collective debate on what is considered superfluous”,
judges Magali Reghezza-Zitt, co-director of Ceres (ENS Ulm) and member of the High Council for the Climate.
Economic planning will therefore have to define the framework for this sobriety.
Above all,
"the French are ready to mobilize on condition that there is an equitable sharing of efforts",
estimates Mathieu Saujot, coordinator of the initiative "Lifestyles in transition" of IDDRI.
"This presupposes putting in place redistribution mechanisms, in particular for the benefit of the most modest, who live in thermal colanders and drive in polluting cars: via, for example, a reduction in income tax, a modulation of VAT or support for businesses by reducing social security charges",
warns for his part Pascal da Costa, professor of economics at CentraleSupélec.
For Mathieu Saujot, the issue of social justice could be preserved by setting up progressive pricing on energy, already tested on water in Dunkirk.
But, despite their reluctance, explains Jean-Philippe Decka in his book which has just been published (1), it is
"the elites (who) have an essential role to play in the transformation of our society",
not only because they have the most leeway financially, but especially as decision makers.
(1) “The Courage to Renounce. The difficult path of the elites to fork towards a sustainable world”, Payot, 2022.
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