Le Figaro Nantes
Saving the planet is, sometimes, a thankless task.
Especially when it comes to analyzing, line by line, the approximately 8,000 entries in the initial 2024 budget for the metropolis of Nantes.
However, this is the task that falls, throughout the year, to the two agents dedicated full-time to the metropolitan green budget project, that is to say, to monitoring the environmental virtue of the expenses incurred. .
The challenge: perfecting a tool designed by the metropolis as a
“compass serving
the ecological bifurcation of Nantes Métropole
”.
Once this broad picture is drawn up, the room for maneuver of those responsible for the green budget turns out to be narrow.
It consists of teaching, exchanging, discussing.
Vice-president of Nantes Métropole in charge of climate and energy transitions, Tristan Riom (EELV) thus evokes the organization
of “internal events”
, intended for the more than 7,000 employees of the metropolitan institution.
“It is not just a communication object, but a decision-making tool, which allows us to mobilize all the people affected by a budget, so that everyone feels concerned by the ecological bifurcation of the metropolis
, defends the chosen one.
Tell yourself that everyone is forced to go through this.”
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A systematic analysis still imperfect
Green budgeting, adopted nationally in 2020, was extended to municipalities with more than 3,500 inhabitants by the 2024 finance law, passed in the fall.
The socialist and environmentalist majority at the head of the metropolis of Nantes had gotten ahead of this obligation last year, by taking on
“a proactive and ambitious approach”
.
Continuing this first experience, a new, more extensive edition of the green budget will be presented on February 9 during the next metropolitan council - in the wake of its municipal version, submitted last week, alongside a "budget sensitive to gender".
This is in-depth work.
The metropolis will work to remove these uncertainties
Tristan Riom, vice-president of Nantes Métropole in charge of climate and energy transitions
As Tristan Riom reminds us, this green budget does not correspond to separate financing, but to
“a reading grid, a systematic analysis of the entire budget of the metropolis with regard to the ecological issue”
.
Concretely, the two people hired to weave this green budget must question the precise implications of the expenses incurred in relation to natural resources, but also in relation to the imperatives of mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
All in coordination with several metropolitan services, including finance.
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At the end of the race, each investment and each operating expense is assigned a rating, favorable or not.
The Anne de Bretagne bridge redevelopment project, taken as an example by the metropolis, leans 90% on the “climate-friendly” side.
The exercise, however, has its limits.
Despite the efforts made, it should be difficult to draw exhaustive lessons from this second green budget.
The majority of entries relating to adaptation to climate change were, for example, stamped with an
“undefined” stamp.
This category designates 54% of expenses and corresponds to items which could not be classified
, “for lack of knowledge or methodological reference”
.
“It’s in-depth work.
The metropolis will work to remove these uncertainties
,” assures Tristan Riom.
Asked last week by
Le Figaro
, opposition elected official Julien Bainvel (LR) welcomed the spirit of these green budgets, which should make it possible
to “objectivize the action of the municipality which prides itself on being ultra eco-friendly” .
Provided, of course, that the methodology is impeccable.
“Last week, at school, they had an apricot tart.
It's not a seasonal fruit.
Is it favorable?”
he asked himself.