“Ecology needs a new narrative. If we show [à ceux qui ont le pouvoir] that it is in their personal interest, that there are economic opportunities to be realized “ solutions to fight against climate change, “so they will do it”, explained Friday, October 29 on franceinfo, Bertrand Piccard. The initiator and president of the Solar Impulse Foundation will present, at the COP26, which begins Sunday in Glasgow, 1,300 sustainable solutions, “financially profitable and creating jobs” to fight against climate change. For Bertrand Piccard, there is complementarity between the observations and guilty words of Greta Thunberg with regard to the generations who have not acted to fight against climate change, and the speech of solutions that the president of Solar Impulse carries.
franceinfo: The UN recalled that we are very far from meeting the commitments made at COP21, in Paris, in 2015. Are there any notes of hope on which to base ourselves?
Bertrand Piccard: Hope or despair is useless. What is needed is to be very realistic. Today, we see that the countries invited to the COP26 in Glasgow must give their commitments to reach the Paris agreements. And these countries are really tiptoeing about it, because they tell themselves that every commitment is going to be detrimental to their economic development. What I would like to do with the 1,300 solutions found with the Solar Impulse Foundation is to show that it is exactly the opposite. To say that today, if we want to create wealth, we are obliged to use ecology as a driving force. This is how we are going to become more efficient, that we will save natural resources, reduce the energy bill, launch major building renovation projects and modern infrastructure.
You said that there are, among the people who have the power, a lot of money, insensitive people, who will never budge if we do not convince them that it is in their interest to go in this direction …
If we present them with a sacrificial and compassionate vision of ecology, they will not be motivated at all. If we show them that it is in their personal interest to become greener, greener, more efficient, then they will do it. They will develop new opportunities, create jobs. And like that, reconcile ecology and economy. Ecology needs a new narrative. Environmentalists are already convinced. I don’t need to convince them. When I go to see heads of state or heads of large companies, and I tell them that the Foundation has found 1,300 financially profitable solutions, which create jobs and protect the environment, at that time- there, that interests them. They know there are economic opportunities to implement these solutions.
Young activist Greta Thunberg will also be present at COP26. She recently declared that there is no planet B, that there is enough of “blah blah”. She annoys a number of adults, shocked that she is teaching them. She is right all the same. What is the difference with you?
Those who criticize it sign their own pathology, because they are the ones who pollute the most, who want to make the system last, and who want to silence those who question them. So Greta is helpful. The only thing is that she is screaming “problems, problems, problems!” I scream “solutions, solutions, solutions!” When she comes before me at a conference, she scares everyone, and she makes people more receptive when you come in to say that there are solutions. There is a very useful complementarity.
With the pandemic and the sudden economic downturn, we have seen a sharp reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Does this mean that the fight against climate change necessarily involves a form of decrease, or of slowing down?
In any case, we must reduce waste, pollution, excess, inefficiency. But we must not decrease the economic functioning, because it is the guarantor of the payment of pensions, Social Security, wages, the well-being of people. So you can’t just say to increase or decrease without saying what to increase. We must already think about tomorrow, that investments must absolutely be made in promising sectors. Putting money into the revival of cars with heat engines is silly, because they will soon be banned in cities. What needs to be developed are electric cars, hydrogen systems, but also make plans to renovate buildings to reduce thermal strainers. Set up new industrial processes. There are extraordinary economic opportunities in protecting the environment.