Public services are “weakened” and “must change profoundly” to “maintain a habitable planet”, according to a report

The observation of the “gap between the evolution of social needs and the resources allocated to public services” comes from the collective “Our public services”.

Public services are “weakened” And “must change profoundly” For “keep a habitable planet”according to the second Report on the state of public services published on Tuesday, September 24, by the collective “Our public services”, which franceinfo was able to consult. It deepens the observation of “gap between the evolution of social needs and the resources allocated to public services“, already noted in 2023, “in the light of environmental crises which call into question our living conditions and our use of natural resources”.

For the collective, public services remain a “essential path” to the resolution of the “conflicts of need”especially for housing, studies, employment and mobility, even if they were built “without taking into account planetary boundaries.” For example, “water policy remains largely focused on satisfying short-term human needs, to the detriment of those of the natural environments on which our future depends”underlines the report which deplores the weak progression of “solutions based on the nature and regulation of discharges”. Moreover, “the law does not provide a lasting solution to water usage conflicts, leaving local power relations to determine their arbitration”he notes.

In the field of transport, while “The distances travelled continue to increase after having increased fivefold since 1960 and are 80% driven by car”the report points out the responsibility of “planning policies” who produce “a growing distance between home, workplace and shops”. He questions the choice of focusing on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions “on the deployment of electric vehicles”without asking what could allow “reduce our dependence on private cars”, as “the relocation of certain activities or public services”.

“Our public services” note “a decline in the regulatory capacities of public authorities” Who “results in particular in an accumulation of public aid without any real compensation”specifies the collective. For example, the reductions in social security contributions, which now affect 9 out of 10 employees, “have seen their targeting and effectiveness diminish, as their cost has increased to more than 70 billion euros annually.”

“The deterioration of public services, combined with the ecological emergency, carries within it the seeds of a democratic, ecological and social crisis: if it is not anticipated and organised, the response to it can only be endured“, the collective believes in its report. It calls for “a more systematic identification of these conflicts and a halt or reorganization of public policies which aggravate them”. “In an uncertain world”public services”carry a logic of universal rights which constitutes an alternative horizon of progress, more compatible with the ecological emergency than that of an unequal material improvement of living conditions”the report concludes.