Far from the stone age
Energy sobriety does not imply a return to the Stone Age. Hot showers, cellphones and travel would still exist in a carbon-neutral world, calculated a team of researchers, including Julia Steinberger, a professor at the Faculty of Geosciences and the Environment at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and lead author of the report of 3e working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“If sobriety is going back to living in a cave, then it’s a cave heated or air-conditioned at 20 degrees permanently, where each person has 15 m2 “, she illustrated during a videoconference presented in Montreal on the sidelines of the 15e United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP15) – the researcher no longer takes the plane for business trips.
No sacrifices, except for the ultra-rich
In a sober lifestyle, there would remain individual cars in the countryside, where it would be possible to drive up to 15,000 kilometers per year, per person, “which is not nothing”, says Julia Steinberger. On the other hand, there would be fewer cars in urban areas, and more public transport. Each person would have a cell phone with “lots of data” and could purchase a maximum of four kilograms of new clothes per year. Each household would have a dishwasher, fridge, freezer and cooking appliance. For many people on the planet, it would be an improvement in the standard of living, notes the researcher. Conversely, “it’s clear that it requires a lot of sacrifices for billionaires,” she quips.
Less energy required
It would be possible to have a level of energy allowing a high level of development everywhere in the world with only 40% of the current world consumption of energy, show the calculations of the researchers. From more than 400 exajoules at present, humanity could thus reduce its consumption of “final energy” to 150 exajoules, explains Julia Steinberger.
This obviously requires better energy efficiency and the abandonment of fossil fuels, which are “almost comically inefficient”, she explains.
“Most fossil fuel sectors lose more than two-thirds of primary energy before arriving at energy services”, illustrates the researcher. The transport and building sectors are the most inefficient.
Systemic changes
Energy sobriety is not just a matter of individual gestures. Everyone can certainly make small gestures, as proposed by the Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy Pierre Fitzgibbon, who also sees sobriety as a solution, but systemic changes are necessary, insists Julia Steinberger.
“Certain industries or certain sectors of the economy, which have very little scruples or regard for sustainability, have made regulations push overconsumption of their products,” she says, calling on the political community to s grasp the problem. The “dependency on economic growth is a mechanism that pushes our industries down this path,” she laments. Julia Steinberger further cites urban planning, which in some places “pushes people into car addiction”.
Significant investments required
Adopting a sober lifestyle requires considerable investment, warns Julia Steinberger. And you have to do them quickly, which is both “awesome and frustrating,” she says. “It’s like for renewable energies: you have to pay now to install solar panels that will last for 30 years, with very little maintenance during their lifespan”, she illustrates.
“It’s expensive, but then we benefit from it in the years to come,” adds the researcher, who points out that energy sobriety also brings benefits in terms of biodiversity, by reducing the consumption of resources and the change in land use. . The transition to a diet more based on vegetable rather than animal proteins will thus have benefits, both for the climate and for biodiversity, she illustrates.