You hear it everywhere, worse than a summer hit. The unexpected success of the concept of sobriety, long shunned by the political class, was born of an unfortunate alignment of the planets. As France, on fire, swimming and dry, realizes its exposure to the consequences of global warming, the expected end of Russian gas supplies caused by the war in Ukraine has highlighted the urgency of reducing our consumption of fossil fuels. But in France, where transport is the main emitter of greenhouse gases, several measures intended to preserve purchasing power in the face of rising energy prices contradict our climate objectives in the short term.
Summoned to leave the car in the garage – to save the planet – the French are thus helped by a discount at the pump – to support the economy. Called in September by the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, to consume to initiate the post-Covid recovery, the population is now asked to contribute on their scale to the energy diet. Invited to do the sales on the one hand, alerted to the dangers of fast-fashion on the other; warned against aviation emissions, but fed promotions for round trips to Greece at the cost of a family cinema session… Citizens, often dependent in spite of themselves on carbon energies, come to terms with these contradictory injunctions.
“Turn off wifi at night to save power.” The trick, cited among others on July 20 by government spokesperson Olivier Véran, was immediately derided on social networks. In question, a problem “order of magnitude”, analyzes Mathieu Saujot, researcher specializing in lifestyles in transition. “We are told about a climate crisis and an energy crisis which are affecting all of Europe, of a massive problem, etc. If, opposite, the response is limited to small solutions, it is rather anxiety-provoking and even counter-productive, because we can clearly see that it is not up to the challenges”, he believes.
Because appealing to “small gestures” translates the “over-responsibilization of individuals” in the crises we are going through, supports Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, sociologist and member of the High Council for the Climate, the independent body responsible for evaluating public policies in the fight against global warming. “In generalshe explains, this means that the collective structures have lost their responsibilities, whereas it is precisely their role to organize these changes.” In the absence of a score that sets the desired transition to music, the citizen is forced to improvise it.
“The public authorities are trying to manage the crisis as a one-off situation, with these urgent responses, without necessarily putting in place structural changes.”
Sophie Dubuisson-Quelliersociologist, member of the High Council for the Climate
At the heart of the debates on the bill on purchasing power, transport offers a concrete example of sobriety for many that is difficult to achieve. In the absence of infrastructure to adopt less energy-consuming habits on a daily basis, injunctions produce guilt and frustration, even rejection of efforts. “Here, some have no choice but to have a car. When they are told to stop driving, they experience it as a personal attack, they are addicted”noted Florent Tarrisse, general manager of the Grands Causses regional natural park, met by franceinfo in February.
“Faced with such constraints, people ask themselves: ‘MBut in the end, is it up to me to change? Aren’t there other actors who have a greater responsibility?'” notes Mathieu Saujot, who sees in the exemplarity of the State and economic actors the key to the support of the population.
However, the French are already rather thrifty: according to Ademe’s latest annual barometer on the social representation of climate change, 62% of respondents said they turned off electrical appliances and 70% of them were already lowering the temperature. to consume less energy. So how can we explain the rather lukewarm reception of the recommendations? “The French say it at every barometer, they said it during the ‘yellow vests’ crisis and on the occasion of the Citizen’s Climate Convention: they are ready to change their lifestyles, provided that there is an equitable sharing of effort”, insists Mathieu Saujot. Gold, “this notion of fairness is, in general, fundamentally absent from the policies of small gestures”, he continues.
In the name of this notion, he describes as “missed appointment” the maintenance, and even the increase, in the bill on purchasing power, of the rebate at the pump. “This measure does not distinguish the household that bought a small fuel-efficient second-hand car from that which bought a new SUV”, he underlines. The wealthiest, whose standard of living, which consumes more energy, emits more greenhouse gases, are even the first beneficiaries of this boost.
Moreover, the room for maneuver differs greatly from one individual to another. This is evidenced by the daily count on social networks of the tonnes of CO2 emitted by the private jet of businessman Bernard Arnault: “Recap of the month: 18 flights, 46 hours, 176 tonnes of CO2. That’s 17 years of carbon footprint for an average Frenchman”, estimated the Instagram account dedicated to “Bernard’s plane“, June 1st.
You are harsh because I am sure that Bernard Arnault sometimes turns off the wifi in his plane
— Greg Devin ⌨️ (@greg_devin_) July 25, 2022
If voices were raised to denounce the energetic intoxication of a Karim Benzema on vacation in Miami or to qualify “climate criminal” (link in English) American influencer and entrepreneur Kylie Jenner, who touts her high-carbon lifestyle online, sobriety is far from becoming a trend on Instagram. This requires “the establishment of new rules, explains Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier. A new social contract that organizes our societies around principles of sobriety vis-à-vis fossil fuels.” Because in our society, the imperative to get out of these polluting modes of production always places us in the face of a “normative dissonance”.
Normative dissonance? “On the one hand, the standards that we share and in which our social lives are part explain to us that a successful life must subscribe to a certain number of indicators: the size of our accommodation, the equipment we have house, the fact of having one or more vehicles, the possibility of going on vacation, even of going far away, and by plane…” list the sociologist. On the other side, “other normative references are struggling to be constituted. There is no proposal that refers to social norms or values that we could share around lifestyles compatible with the limits of the planet.” Waiting, “ecology is only presented as a renunciation” to these common aspirations, she decides.
A category of the population – rather privileged, educated in climate issues and, above all, a minority – however integrates these new standards. Giving up the plane or the car, no longer eating meat, consuming “ethically”… She derives social gratification of these individual choices that she considers virtuous for the collective, explain the two experts. However, putting the collective before its own needs is a luxury for the most modest, subject to constrained sobriety. Finally, for the richest, whose status depends precisely on this distinction in the ability to accumulate, sobriety is a vertigo of identity. Since then, “we have somewhat reached a limit point in this question of injunctions, concludes Mathieu Saujot. The individuals most inclined to follow them are already doing so. And we can see that it doesn’t work on the others.”