The author is a historian, sociologist, writer, teacher at the University from Quebec to Chicoutimi in the history, sociology, anthropology, political science and international cooperation programs and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Collective Imaginations.
This is an unprecedented initiative in our society (Quebec ZéN, for “net zero emissions”). It is distinguished by some unusual features and deserves special attention. This is what I would like to illustrate using the document “Roadmap for Quebec’s transition to carbon neutrality”. Coming from phase 1 of the project, this document is the result of a reflection in which more than 80 organizations collaborated. The project itself is led by the Common Front for Energy Transition, a coalition of environmental, citizen, union, community and student organizations.
What is the Québec ZéN project?
A collaborative work The project comes from a large coalition. The organizations that make up the Common Front represent nearly two million people. This scale is required by the general purpose of the project: to act on pollution, but also to promote a renewed collective life, based on carbon neutrality. In the spirit of eco-citizenship, we also want to mobilize local populations. We are therefore aiming for a structure and intervention strategies on a societal scale, as required by the immense project of environmental recovery with all its challenges.
Diversified issues It is certainly a matter of working for the future of the planet and safeguarding biodiversity, but the Coalition is also developing a specific approach for our society, an approach based on justice and equity, which ensures the protection of Aboriginal peoples, respect for human rights and the management of eco-anxiety among young people, all in the spirit of intergenerational justice. Other parameters: participatory democracy, solidarity, sharing, inclusion, creativity, international solidarity.
An ambitious program The project opens up the environmental issue on broad horizons by addressing the energy transition not only as a technical challenge, but as “a social transformation project”: we are talking about remodeling the economic system, transport (reducing “solo cars” in the state of exception), finance, food, consumption, as well as a redefinition of values. The ideal of social justice takes precedence over the interests of industrial and financial lobbies, a necessary condition for achieving carbon neutrality. We are aiming for “a movement of change at all scales”, from local to international. The “conservative society” will replace the “consumer society”.
Bold initiatives Going beyond negotiations with ministries and the business community by ensuring “the active contribution and participation of the populations concerned”, mobilizing all spheres of society, achieving 100% renewable energy and moving towards the zero waste.
Means of action To convince decision-makers and other stakeholders, the Coalition relies on the “social dialogue” which has allowed its formation, demonstrating its effectiveness. Officials want this “revolution [soit] calm “.
This is a program that leads to a great collective project for Quebec.
Questions
The project impresses with its generous philosophy and broad scope. However, the enthusiasm he inspires does not make us forget the difficulties that await him. Here are a few.
How will these changes be funded? Officials agree that they will require “extraordinary financial efforts”, especially since it is a question of establishing “robust compensation mechanisms” to prevent low-income households from bearing the burden of the changes more than the wealthy , b) to “accompany businesses” to enable them to decarbonize while resisting the temptation to relocate. As far as solutions are concerned, we are talking about taking advantage of tax havens and above all of transforming our economic policies in order to redirect investment flows towards the energy transition, without resorting to austerity policies (we are talking rather about ” sobriety”). Will there perhaps be added a heavier tax burden for the rich?
Finally, the idea of favoring the social economy and community formulas must be combined with the important role of individualism in our society.
Novelty The concepts of recycling, green economy and sustainable development are discarded; they assume that production and growth could continue as before.
The feasibility How, by means of social dialogue, to convince the big companies to mend their ways? How do you get business to accept degrowth — isn’t that what it’s all about? How to concretize participatory democracy, an attractive idea but whose history is strewn with failures? Isn’t this also the case of the desire to focus the economy on the satisfaction of needs rather than on accumulation? And how to rein in big industry to prevent it from unduly influencing the state? To achieve these goals, will we not have to abandon capitalism? Another problem may arise in the “uncompromising” choice of “active, collective and shared” transport. It should be noted, moreover, that those in charge have the prudence of not announcing a timetable.
This exciting project obviously calls for clarification. The readers of To have to will no doubt wish to know the answers to the questions I have posed. This will be done in the June 6 edition. Carole Dupuis, Mélanie Busby and Éric Pineault kindly agreed to follow up on this text.