This forum could have been summed up in two words: “Look up!” (Look!), as claimed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film don’t look up, an allegory of denial in the face of climate change, which depicts a society more concerned about its navel than about the looming threat. A few weeks before the presidential election, 1,400 scientists, climatologists, geographers, sociologists, philosophers, historians, oceanographers, astrophyscists, mathematicians and economists, from all over France, are worried, in this column published Tuesday, February 1 on franceinfo , of “the absence of democratic debate (…) on the serious upheavals in progress and to come”.
If the importance of climate and environmental issues is now unanimously recognized, the subject is very little discussed in high political masses, as illustrated by the debates of the Les Républicains congress or the interview with Emmanuel Macron on TF1 end December. In mid-January, a panel of journalists specializing in the environment and a collective of energy and climate experts were already making the bitter observation. However, the next president or the next president of the Republic will have to make important decisions in the face of these upheavals. “Voters need to know the proposals of the candidates for the presidential election, and their conditions of implementation”, believe the signatories of this forum. They express themselves here freely.
Scientists from different disciplines, we observe, analyze and anticipate environmental changes according to socio-economic choices, try to determine their consequences and assess the relevance of the actions envisaged.
“Whatever our political opinions and our personal commitments, we note with concern the absence of democratic debate in the presidential campaign on the serious upheavals in progress and to come, whether they concern the climate, the ocean, biodiversity or pollution.”
The signatories of the tribuneon franceinfo.fr
The technicality and complexity of the subjects, the affirmation of their anxiety-provoking nature, the conviction that they go beyond political divisions and have little interest for the general public – the promise therefore of a lower ratings –, are often put forward to justify this silence. However, according to the latest survey by Ademe (Agency for Ecological Transition), the environment is a major concern for French people, who are increasingly aware of the effects of a changing climate (+1.7°C since 1900 in France). According to the National Observatory on the Effects of Global Warming (Onerc), two thirds of them are already directly exposed to climate risks.
The agricultural world is becoming aware of its great vulnerability to the intensification of the water cycle and extreme heat. Large companies are developing climate policies. Several communities have set up local IPCCs or citizens’ councils, underlining the strong mobilization capacity of our compatriots. All have understood that the production and consumption models inherited from the past will be called into question, even though the health crisis has revealed the country’s multiple weaknesses.
It is undoubtedly more convenient to reduce the debate on the necessary structural transformations to a confrontation between supporters of nuclear power and defenders of renewable energies; it is probably also more comfortable to confuse decarbonization of the entire energy sector and low-carbon electricity production, alerts on the state of the environment and radical militancy, lucidity and catastrophism.
“These simplifications end up creating an intellectual prison, which prevents putting on the table the choices that are still available to us, and debating them in a democratic way, that is to say public, informed and contradictory.”
The signatories of the tribuneon franceinfo.fr
The challenges ahead of us include reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preserving life. But they also relate to the nature and pace of adaptation, the fair distribution of risks and efforts, solidarity between generations or between territories. In fact, they relate to employment, transport and mobility, food, sharing and access to resources – particularly drinking water –, land, health, taxation, education, vocational training, research and innovation, preservation of historical and cultural heritage, housing, reduction of inequalities and territorial fractures, the digital revolution, disaster prevention and compensation, internal security, sovereignty and national defence, European and international politics.
“While many short and long-term objectives are known and set by our national and international commitments, different trajectories are possible and must be discussed. And if we choose inaction, it is necessary to expose and discuss them. bear the consequences.”
The signatories of the tribuneon franceinfo.fr
It is still necessary that the citizens can decide in their soul and conscience. For this, the candidates for the presidential election must be able to express themselves, and therefore be questioned, on substantive issues.
They are many. So, how do we:
– triple the rate of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2024, without increasing social and territorial inequalities? Directing France’s investments towards carbon neutrality? Act on other greenhouse gases, in particular methane? Develop carbon sinks, while our forests are already suffering from the changing climate?
– reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, without increasing fuel poverty, by supporting the retraining of certain jobs and by training a skilled workforce to meet new needs?
– integrate environmental issues into international trade agreements, to reduce our carbon footprint, imported deforestation, water or plastic consumption?
– transform the agricultural, industrial and tourist sectors to respond to the impacts of climate change, the increase in the cost of raw materials, the adoption of new international standards, consumer expectations?
– adapt cities to reduce their vulnerability to hot, dry and humid extremes, according to a low-carbon logic, while fighting against unhealthy housing and poor housing, without increasing the artificialization of soils?
– prepare for more frequent and more intense extreme climatic events, strengthen crisis management and insurance systems and commit resources to meet the challenges of adaptation and resilience? Anticipating the displacement of populations, infrastructures and activities, in particular on the coasts, and considering as of now the future of the most exposed territories?
– influence global climate and environmental protection diplomacy, so that States respect their commitments and that the Paris agreement truly plays its role?
– work to ensure that the eradication of poverty in the world is combined with the adoption of sustainable development models and the emancipation of women?
The scientific observation vis-à-vis human responsibility in global warming, the erosion of biodiversity and pollution is clear.
“There is no miracle cure, no completely painless panacea. Technological innovation or individual injunctions to sobriety will not be enough on their own.”
The signatories of the tribuneon franceinfo.fr
But if the changes we are experiencing have a speed and scale unprecedented on the scale of human history, we can still mitigate crises and prepare ourselves to overcome their damaging effects. Factual elements exist on the potential, the costs, the benefits and the limits of the multiple levers of action at our disposal. The year 2022 will also be marked by the publication, on February 28 and April 4, of the reports of groups II and III of the IPCC on adaptation and on mitigation.
This is why, while the talk of inaction is multiplying, it is more essential than ever to be able to deliberate calmly on the alternatives, the opportunities and the constraints of the various options envisaged, by ceasing to disconnect the technical choices and the dimensions economic, social, territorial. For this reason, voters need to know the proposals of the candidates for the presidential election, and their conditions of implementation.
The first signatories:
Luc Abbadie, ecologist, iESS-Sorbonne University
Christophe Cassou, climatologist, CERFACS-CNRS
Sophie Dubuisson Quellier, sociologist, CNRS-Sciences Po
Marc Fleurbaey, economist, CNRS-PSE-Ecole Normale Supérieure
Céline Guivarch, economist, CIRED-Ecole des Ponts
Valérie Masson-Delmotte, climatologist, LSCE-CEA
Magali Reghezza, geographer, LGP Meudon, Ecole Normale Supérieure
Sabrina Speich, physical oceanographer and climate science, LMD-IPSL
Find all of the 1,401 signatories in this table: