Twenty-two minutes more but 7 billion euros less: this is the alternative proposed Friday, October 29 by the spokesperson for Europe Ecology – The Greens on franceinfo for the LGV Bordeaux-Toulouse. Eva Sas presented this option which, according to her, “worth it” the current high-speed rail line project between the two towns in the South-West. The mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, also an environmentalist, also spoke out against the LGV project on Thursday.
franceinfo: Are you going to Toulouse?
Eva Sas: I sometimes go to Toulouse and I go there by train. What we offer is an alternative to the LGV line. Since at least 2013, we have been saying that we must stop the ‘all TGV’ because it is wasting public money and it does not allow to renovate the existing lines and take care of the daily trains. We said so during the Mobility 21 commission which, moreover, brought together all the parties. The fact that we must stop with the ‘all TGV’ is quite consensual. It seems to me that it is worth it to put the package on the renovation of existing lines.
What we are proposing is not stopping the TGV but an alternative proposal which costs 7 billion euros less and which, indeed, takes 20 minutes longer, but I think it’s worth it. This represents exactly 22 minutes and it costs between 5 and 7 billion while the project which is on the LGV table costs 14 billion euros. So that’s a pretty significant difference.
Should we ban hunting on weekends and during school holidays as well as hunting with hounds, as proposed by Yannick Jadot, the environmental candidate for the presidential election?
Yes, we must move forward on this sensitive subject of hunting. Today, Emmanuel Macron is a bit hostage to the hunters’ lobby, while the majority of French people are more in favor of a supervision of the practice. You have to have equal access to nature and you need to be able to walk quietly on weekends and during school holidays. We are indeed asking for a ban on these periods.
The problem, as we have just seen with an accident in Haute-Savoie, in which a 29-year-old man was injured by a hunter, is to be able to walk quietly and enjoy nature without worrying about knowing whether we are going to be the victim of a hunting accident or not. For the serenity of families, it really is a measure of common sense. Today, nature is a bit privatized by hunters because it is difficult to go for a walk when there is a hunt in progress.
We are also asking for a total ban on hunting with hounds, because these traditional hunts are cruel for animals, as well as a stricter regulation of hunting. Moreover, it should be noted that nearly 70% of hunters are urban and that there are even 11% of hunters who are from Ile-de-France. This image of hunting associated with rurality is not real.
At Europe Ecologie – Les Verts, we are the first defenders of rurality. When we defend public services or small train lines, we want to revive these territories. We want to bring back jobs to these territories and we will defend rurality with steadfastness.
The COP26 opens Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland. What should we expect from these ten days of discussions? Is it a diplomatic or environmental sequence?
We are quite pessimistic about this COP26 when there is a major stake, that of preserving livable conditions for humanity on Earth. We see climate change all around us with repeated forest fires, floods and storms. We must act quickly. The objective is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 in the European Union. We come up with proposals because we do see that governments are falling short. For example, we want a treaty on the non-proliferation of fossil fuels. Exploration permits should no longer be issued for new fossil fuels. To be heard, France must also be exemplary and, for the moment, she is not. (…) It’s difficult to go and teach others when you only spend 2 billion euros on thermal renovation when it would take ten.
We want a major energy saving plan to move towards energy sobriety. For this, we are proposing the thermal renovation of buildings, in particular for the most modest households, a remainder at zero charge, therefore a large ecological transition plan that allows us to save energy.
The Paris agreement exists but it needs to be more ambitious today. The commitments are too weak, the governments do not really engage in the fight against the leaders. What is realistic today is to fight fiercely against climate change. Today, all governments that claim to be realistic are sending us to the wall. We are in the process of completely disrupting the climate of this planet. Environmentalists see reality and want to tackle it.