No attentive reader of Breaking (RE)NEWS will be surprised, but the scale of the movement is striking. The closer we get to the European elections, the more our European leaders seem frightened by their own past audacity, and are rushing to unravel whole swathes of the "Green Pact", or Green Deal, painstakingly negotiated over the last few years. Judge for yourself. Since November 22 and the surprise rejection of the European regulation on pesticides, the unravelling machine has been in full swing. Green CAP revisited, duty of care gutted, nature restoration law in limbo, text on imported deforestation under threat... Between now and June 9 and the first round of elections, transition players are clinging to their seats, electrified.
What's most intriguing is that these are reversals on texts that have already been approved, and for which majorities had been reached! This is an institutional innovation, as the EU is not accustomed to backtracking, and European legislation is already complex enough, being the result of multiple compromises, not to want to go back on difficult decisions, at the risk of never coming to a conclusion. Today, we are witnessing what equestrians would describe as an obstacle refusal. For example, the CAP, which was renegotiated over many years and finally adopted in 2021 with a "greener" tone, provided for different thresholds for triggering action. For example, in 2023, new environmental requirements had to be implemented and complied with, as well as in 2024. But this year, as last year, just before the decisive dates, "transitional phases" are being added, "exceptional measures" decided, "exemptions" multiplied, in order to empty the reforms of their substance. In short, as Libération puts it, an "unravelled" Green Pact. The same is true of the European duty of care, finally adopted by the skin of its teeth ten days ago, but with thresholds, sectors and sanctions that greatly reduce the initial ambition of the text, which was initially adopted by a majority in the Parliament, the Council and the Commission. The result is a "very weakened" duty of vigilance, as Le Monde and Novethic put it. And what can we say about the flagship Nature Restoration project, torpedoed once again in the final run-up to its adoption, which was supposed to be a mere formality, after its content had already been heavily watered down. Biodiversity will have to wait a little longer... The text, aimed at preserving 20% of the land and sea's biodiversity, was the subject of a trialogue agreement (between the three European bodies) and a positive vote in the European Parliament in February. "All that remained was to pass the test of the Council of the EU. But not this time, due to an unexpected U-turn by Hungary. Last but not least, the innovative and ambitious regulation on imported deforestation, adopted in 2022 and due to come into force at the end of the year, is now threatened with suspension and postponement. In any case, this is what some twenty states - a solid majority of member states, that is! -including France, according to information gathered by Reuters and reported by Novethic. Deforestation will have to wait until after the European elections. What began with the announcement of a "pause" is beginning to look like a debacle. Can't wait for the elections! Even if we fear that their outcome will hinder the pursuit of urgent and sometimes decisive reforms. Perhaps we should have prioritized them better and made them clearer, so as not to frighten anyone...
To kick off our weekly columns, let's start with a classic: the weather. Records broken for ocean heat, sea level rise, glacier retreat... 2023 concluded the hottest decade on record, pushing the planet "to the brink", the UN has just warned. A new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), quoted by L'Express and AFP, shows that records have been "smashed" in terms of greenhouse gas levels, surface temperatures, ocean heat content and acidification, sea level rise, the extent of Antarctic sea ice and glacier retreat. The planet is therefore "on the brink of the abyss", while "fossil fuel pollution is causing unprecedented climate chaos", warned UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for the millionth time (that's a bit of an exaggeration). "There is still time to throw people and the planet a lifeline," he said, but action is needed "now". The average global surface temperature in 2023 was 1.45°C above the pre-industrial baseline. "Every fraction of a degree of global warming has an impact on the future of life on Earth," warned the UN chief. And what will he be saying in 2024? Because the year ahead could be just as chaotic, Libération warns. "There is a high probability that 2024 will again beat the record set in 2023," said Omar Baddour of the WMO.
Speaking of greenhouse gases, this week's good news won't have escaped your notice, as it was trumpeted loud and clear, especially at the highest levels of government: the decline in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in France is accelerating! Enough to allow the Minister of Ecology to appear on TF1's 8.00 pm newscast, congratulating himself on a "record" year. In 2023, GHG emissions were down 4.8% on 2022, to 384.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. In a single year, this is equivalent to "almost the entire drop" recorded in France between 2012 and 2017, emphasized Christophe Béchu. For the record, the reduction was only 2.7% in 2022 compared to 2021. Even greater efforts will be required to reach the targets France has set itself: a 34% drop in emissions between 2022 and 2030 - or 5% per year - the only way to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 (-55% net). Above all, we still don't measure the greenhouse gases linked to our imports, which are anything but negligible. Also: we know that a good part of the decline is linked to weak economic growth, particularly in industrial production, whose GHGs plunged by 8%, explain Les Echos. Finally, less has been said about the performance of Germany, our favorite competitor, whose greenhouse gas emissions fell by more than 10% last year, despite the fact that this country no longer has nuclear power...
This week's judicial decision is not unrelated to the previous topic, and comes to us from the administrative judge, for a change. It concerns the ski economy. It is a concrete demonstration of the consequences of the climate crisis and the need to adapt to it. In the space of a month, the ski resorts of Alpe-d'Huez (Isère) and Le Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie) each had their town-planning schemes rejected by the Grenoble administrative court. The court also annulled a chairlift project in Aussois (Savoie) on March 5. As Le Monde recalls, the tone had been set in 2023, with a decision that caused quite a stir: the cancellation, on May 30, 2023, of the schéma de cohérence territoriale de la Maurienne, a document voted by sixty-two Savoyard communes, including twenty-four resorts (Valloire, Valmeinier, Saint-Jean-d'Arves, Valfréjus...). This roadmap called for the extension of ski areas and the construction of 22,800 tourist beds, including a 1,000-bed Club Med in Valloire. Today, " a tipping point has been reached, " says Philippe Bourdeau, a lecturer at Grenoble-Alpes University specializing in mountain economics. Senior civil servants are increasingly sensitive to environmental issues, and to public spending that fails to take them into account. The recent report by the French Court of Auditors bears witness to this. There is less benevolence towards the ski economy.
In a similar vein, the prayer of the week (a must this Easter weekend!) is addressed to Sant Galdric, patron saint of the Catalans. The parishioners of Perpignan have decided to rely on him once again to bring rain to the Pyrénées-Orientales. On Sunday March 10, for the second year running, they organized a procession through the streets of the town. In the far south of France, as throughout the western Mediterranean basin, drought has set in - for good, it seems. May prayers be answered. Failing that, an effective and undoubtedly reinforced "Water Plan" can also help.
On the "resources and transition" front, the public debate of the week (and months to come) was launched in Auvergne. A technical, environmental and economic study must be completed before Imerys, world leader in mineral specialties for industry, can launch a lithium resource development project on the Échassières site. The site is currently used to produce ceramics and porcelain. If the project is finalized, the Échassières site would become the second largest lithium operator in Europe. From March 11 to July 7, 2024, a public consultation is open on this project, under the guidance of the Commission nationale du débat public (CNDP). An online participation platform is also available for the public to find out more about the project and gather opinions. Our attentive readers will remember last week's "concept of the week": nimby ("not in my backyard"). Lithium is good for the transition and electric batteries, but a mine in my backyard is not so nice. A good illustration.
Speaking of "clean" energy, the innovation of the week comes to us from the cold countries, from Finland to be precise, with the scaling-up of "sand batteries", a first version of which has been in operation since 2022. The new sand battery, which should be operational within 18 months, will be 13 meters high and 15 meters wide, offering a power output of 1 MW and a capacity of 100 MWh, according to the online newsletter Newatlas. It is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the nearby city's district heating system by 160 tonnes a year, equivalent to a reduction of almost 70%. The perverse minds among you will make the same observation as the author of these lines: sand, too, is a dwindling resource... But the Finns have the answer: the sand itself will come from sustainable sources! It will be made from crushed soapstone, a by-product of another local industry. A material that can apparently conduct heat even better than ordinary old sand.
Resources again, but food this time, the waste of the week is highlighted by the UN, which calls it a " global tragedy ": at least one billion meals are wasted every day on the planet! This figure is all the more shocking given that, in the same year, 783 million people went hungry, and a third of humanity faced food insecurity. According to the study, carried out in partnership with British NGO Wrap, 1.05 billion tonnes of foodstuffs (including inedible parts such as bones, cores or eggshells) were thrown away worldwide in 2022, representing " almost a fifth (19%) of all food available to consumers ". Worse still, says Libération, this represents only a fraction of total food waste. For this staggering volume of victuals thrown away rather than into our stomachs is in addition to the 13% of the world's total food production lost up the supply chain (after harvest and before reaching the shops), a figure provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). From field to fork, the world squanders a third of total food production! And households are largely to blame. They are the ones who throw away 60% of all this wasted food (i.e. 631 million tonnes), while restaurants and canteens throw away 28% and shops 12%. The consequences of this global wastefulness are " devastating ", warns the report. It is responsible for 8-10% of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions, "almost five times more than the aviation sector". Another disastrous effect is a "significant loss of biodiversity ", since producing all this wasted food takes up the equivalent of almost 30% of the world's agricultural land. As well as being an " environmental failure ", food loss and waste is also a " market failure ", weighing heavily on the global economy, with over $1,000 billion (around 922 billion euros) literally thrown away every year. The global objective, enshrined at the end of 2022 in the Kunming-Montreal agreement on biodiversity, is to halve food waste by 2030. A "job that is too big for any one stakeholder" to take on in isolation, concludes the report. It therefore calls for a collective effort, with "governments, municipalities, food companies, researchers and non-governmental organizations of all sizes [all having] a role to play in changing practices and behaviors, targeting at-risk areas, innovating and improving the situation" by helping households to take action, the report concludes. " If food waste were a country, it would be the "third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind the United States and China ", reads Le Monde.
A good time to talk about the diseases of the week, linked to food insecurity! Rickets and scurvy are making a comeback in Europe, particularly in the UK. "Why the return of Victorian-era diseases to the UK is worrying health experts", headlines the Guardian, which reports on the return to its territory of diseases that were thought to have been eradicated forever in Europe, thanks to modernity and advances in medicine. The reason: an impoverished population. Approximately one Briton in five now lives below the poverty line. That's 14 million people, some of whom struggle to feed themselves properly. In 2022, 423 patients were hospitalized in the UK for rickets, caused by vitamin D or calcium deficiency, and 188 for scurvy, due to insufficient consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, which guarantee vitamin C intake. In all, nearly 10,000 Britons were hospitalized for malnutrition in one year, four times as many as twelve years ago. "It is shameful", concludes the British daily. Indeed.
Let's continue with the contents of our plates with the "international day of the week", which may not entirely convince victims of rickets and scurvy: March 20 was "meatless day". By the way, which behavioral change is proving most useful in the fight against global warming? "Consuming only local produce", replied 31% of French people surveyed by the YouGov institute in February. "Opting for bicycles for short journeys" and "adopting a zero-waste lifestyle" came second and third respectively (20% and 19% of responses). For 16% of those polled, we should "refuse air travel". Only 6% of those questioned felt that, above all, we should "adopt a vegetarian diet". The Futur association, which commissioned the survey, took advantage of International Meatless Day to point out, with the complicity of Libération, that giving up meat and fish is by far the most useful ecogesture for reducing greenhouse gas emissions on an individual scale. The survey is part of a campaign dubbed "L'Affaire du steak" (in reference to the climate justice campaign "L'Affaire du siècle"), which is also being displayed in the Paris metro.
The second (!) waste of the week is electronic: smartphones, tablets, computers, flat screens, electric bicycle batteries, photovoltaic panels... The digitization and electrification of our lifestyles are accompanied by an explosion in electronic waste. Between 2010 and 2022, it jumped by 82% to a record 62 million tonnes worldwide, warns the United Nations (UN) in a report published on March 20. And, according to UN projections, it will continue to grow by a third between now and 2030. Worse: between 2022 and 2030, the collection and recycling rate is set to decline from 22.3% to 20%. As a result, e-waste is growing five times faster than the amount recycled. E-waste and the circular economy still don't go hand in hand. In the meantime, the breakdown by country is unsurprising: China is far, far ahead, followed by the USA, India and Brazil. But, as is often the case, if we look at waste volumes per capita, the hierarchy changes drastically: the European Union is far ahead of the rest of the world. A French person generates an average of 22.4 kg of electronic waste per year, less than a Norwegian (26 kg), but more than an American (21.3 kg), almost triple that of a Chinese (8.5 kg) and ten times that of an African! In 2022, almost half of the 62 million tonnes of "e-waste" ended up in unauthorized landfills (14 million tonnes) or fed the black recycling market in developing countries (16 million tonnes). This has catastrophic consequences for the environment and the health of people who work or live near these dumps, especially children, exposing them to a cocktail of toxic products (lead, dioxins, PFAS, etc.). Today, the recycling of these wastes, which contain large quantities of strategic materials, covers barely 1% of global demand for rare metals (copper, cobalt, nickel, gold and silver). The UN estimates this waste of resources at 91 billion dollars. The status quo is no longer sustainable," says Kees Baldé, the report's principal author, quoted by Le Monde. It is urgent that governments invest more in recycling infrastructures and promote repair and reuse." At (RE)SET, we applaud this recommendation with both hands! Especially as France has eco-organizations specialized in this field.
Speaking of waste and recycling, this week's supermarket has a lovely name: Super Tout Nu. It has just been inaugurated in Toulouse by the Minister for Business, Tourism and Consumer Affairs, Olivia Grégoire. No disposable packaging! Consignment, local, organic, reuse and bulk on every floor! It was imagined by Salomé Géraud (Nicaise) and Pierre Géraud-Liria, co-founders of the zero-waste e-commerce chain Le Drive tout nu. A container washing station (jars, bottles, etc.) adjoins the supermarket. To shop there, you'll have to go to the Labège shopping zone south of Toulouse. Visuals are available on LinkedIn.
The surprise of the week is only indirectly related to our subjects, at least we hope it is, but since it's important, we'll give it to you anyway: the decline in human fertility worldwide is faster than expected. According to a study published in "The Lancet", and echoed by Le Monde, the average fertility rate in 2050 could be around 1.8 children per woman worldwide, below the population renewal threshold of 2.1. By 2100, researchers expect only Samoa, Somalia, Tonga, Niger, Chad and Tajikistan to remain above the population renewal threshold. At the other end of the spectrum, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia could see their fertility rates fall below one child per woman (leading to a doubling of the population). The implications are considerable," said Natalia V. Bhattacharjee of the IHME, co-author of this research. These trends (...) will completely reconfigure the global economy and the international balance of power, and require a reorganization of societies." Going against the political zeitgeist in France and Europe, the researcher anticipates "international competition to attract migrants to sustain economic growth, as the baby boom continues apace in sub-Saharan Africa". Moving from manu militari refoulement to competition to attract migrants will take time, but it will happen, say the scientists...
The star of the week is Barack Obama, the former U.S. president, who while in Paris openly mocked the visions of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, referring to "Silicon Valley tycoons, many of whom are building spaceships ( ...) I love space exploration, and I look forward to seeing us get to Mars and beyond (...) But when I hear some people say the plan is to colonize Mars because the environment is so bad (...), I think it's a very good idea. ) I love space exploration, and I'm looking forward to seeing us get to Mars and beyond (...) But when I hear some people say that the plan is to colonize Mars because the environment on Earth could deteriorate, that it would become unlivable... But what are you saying?Obama fumed. "Even after a nuclear war (...) Earth would be more livable than Mars! Even if we didn't do anything about climate change, it would still have oxygen, and as far as we know, Mars doesn't," he elaborated, before an audience of renewable energy professionals gathered in the amphitheatre of the CNIT in Paris-La Défense. And at least one journalist from Francetvinfo.
At (RE)SET, we were delighted to receive this week's column from our President. When it comes to economic and environmental transition, "one radical can hide another", writes Géraldine Poivert in Les Echos. In other words, now is not the time to warn (everyone knows), nor to debate (the debates have already taken place), but to act! Much of the difficulty of today's transition lies in the fact that promises and commitments (by governments, companies, citizens) are not being kept. Isn't the real radicality, the one that gets to the root of the problem, simply to stop paying lip service and take action? The stakes are well known. So are the difficulties. The legal framework is, for the most part, in place. Many pragmatic solutions are already in place. All that remains is to seize them, to bring actions into line with commitments. Big capitalists, government and environmental activists could all find themselves in this kind of radicalism. The kind that actually makes things happen. That's our obsession at (RE)SET.
So last week's riddle had nothing to do with the film Dune, nor with giant worms or spices if you dig deep enough. This is a satellite photo of a desert in Namibia. If you want to get there, it's here: 24°42'51.43″S, 15°29'22.71″E.
This week's riddle takes us back to France. On this map, what might those little dots ranging from pale green to dark red represent? There are more of them than anywhere else in Ardèche, Pyrénées-Orientales, Hautes-Alpes and Corsica (that's the clue).
[As a reminder, (RE)SET, founded in 2019, is the first independent consultancy dedicated to economic and environmental transition and cut out for action. "(RE)SET: resources to win environmental and economic battles!" Necessarily partial, sometimes biased, always committed, this media review with its often lively, even impertinent tone in no way commits (RE)SET to its consulting activities, but it does paint what we consider to be an interesting portrait of the state of the transition as reflected in the press and research. A snapshot of the debate, the forces at play, the oppositions, the convergences, which we hope will be useful for your decisions and the construction of your transition strategies].
