“I’m pretty much in the middle of England there. I’m looking to tell you more precisely … Oh no, finally, I’m not really in the middle, I’m still quite low. I have to accept it (laughs) “. When he picks up his phone, Benjamin de Molliens is lost, somewhere in Buckinghamshire (England). Behind him, we hear a mechanical background sound, we can guess the cars driving on the left of the road.
After a quick check on his phone, he realizes it’s not as high as he hoped it would be. Having left Lille on Friday, October 22, Benjamin has already been driving for four days, after a first day of crossing the Channel in a sailboat. His goal: to reach Glasgow by bike on October 31, to participate in the COP26. The World Climate Summit takes place in Scotland, between November 1 and 12.
“Expeditions” like this, the original Breton has already made several. From his long crossing of the Alps on foot, for 29 days, to the descent of the Canal du Midi from Toulouse to Sète in paddle, through the 600 kilometers by bike between Brittany and Normandy, Benjamin crisscrossed France according to his concept of 3 zeros. “Zero waste, zero new equipment and zero carbon footprint, he supports. Of course I am not zero, but I try to get as close to it as possible “.
For example, for this trip of about ten days, Benjamin travels with a bike from a test park of the Triban brand. Its front and rear saddlebags are old canvases from climbing crash pads. The middle one is made on the basis of a kayak canvas. Finally, the rear frame is made from a life jacket belt and a piece of bicycle tire. “A sewing machine and the machine operates” He explains, detailing the work done by a brand from the North of France to manufacture its saddlebags. For the rest, the green adventurer plans to bivouac, even if “they announce heavy rain and good cold in Scotland “.
It’s a pretty cool goal and I thought to myself that to go there it was nicer to do it like zero expo. It will raise awareness, it is something symbolic. Going to COP26 by plane doesn’t make sense.
This time, in addition to the adventure aspect that animates it, this “experience” takes on a more symbolic aspect. “In parallel with my expeditions, I am a facilitator for the workshops of La fresque du climat. These are workshops which allow us to understand the cause and effect links of climatic disturbances and to explain how to carry out actions on their own scale and at the scale of its business to reduce its carbon footprint “. On his activities during COP26, he continues: ‘”I will be leading these workshops and I will also be hosting a small conference on my expeditions. “
Apart from these conferences and workshops, Benjamin does not expect much from the COP itself. “VShe is one of those great political masses where there are often fine words but few deeds. I don’t want to be pessimistic but in general it’s a bit disappointing, he explains.
“Ideally”, he wants the various states involved to recognize their wrongs following the Paris agreements in 2015. He explains: “That they review the objectives, that they be more strict concerning their exit from fossil fuels, that they be more strict on the exit of the overconsumption and all these things which make that one goes straight in the wall “.
His ecological click, Benjamin had it in 2016, in San Francisco. If he willingly concedes having “always had this fiber of travel and adventure “, the “fiber of ecology“came when he was looking at numbers on plastic pollution in the oceans.”I grew up by the sea, I do a lot of activities at sea and it really shocked me to see these numbers. When I returned to France I got involved in an ecology project to fight against this, he remembers. I quickly realized that I was on a technical approach to the problem, that it was very focused on plastic pollution and that there were really other important and interesting ecological problems. This is how I came to create the Zero Expeditions “.
After a few days on the road, the hardest part still seems to be done. Positive and determined, Benjamin is prepared for it. On the way, he will be able to think about his future expeditions. Three are planned for next year, in the Jura, between Marseille and Paris, then in the Pyrenees. But before leaving, Benjamin will have to make sure to prepare his way, before setting out his route.