Hello,
If we can't get on with business as usual, let's get on with this Breaking (RE)NEWS, which is more than ever marked by the seal of transition. Transition in the European Parliament, where the new players are meeting this week for their first plenary session, in search of a findable majority (the same as the previous one), transition in the French Parliament, in the midst of the feverish formation of new groups around an untraceable majority (which couldn't have come as a surprise to the attentive readers of Breaking (RE)NEWS!), transition in government, with a team charged with expediting current affairs, Olympic transition, with the arrival of the flame in Paris, ... And above all our own, the only one not shrouded in an aura of ephemerality: environmental and economic transition! As Géraldine Poivert, co-founder of (RE)SET, reminds us on LinkedIn : "At the risk of repeating ourselves, the challenges posed by the transition don't give a damn about the vagaries of politics. The resource revolution is essential today, and will be even more so tomorrow. Transition is no longer an option. It must be at the heart of political thinking, given its multiple consequences (economic, industrial, social, cultural, etc.). So what could be more natural than for it to feature in current debates? Every party should equip itself with expertise on these subjects.
Our weekly columns inevitably begin with a few meteorological considerations. The best way to remember that climate and "business as usual" don't necessarily mix! June 2024 was the hottest June on record worldwide, announced the European observatory Copernicus, beating the already exceptional record set in June 2023. After more than a year of uninterrupted monthly records, "the global average temperature over the last twelve months, from July 2023 to June 2024, is the highest ever recorded", i.e. "1.64°C above the pre-industrial average of 1850-1900", when mankind's greenhouse gas emissions had not yet warmed the planet, recalls Le Monde. This may come as a surprise in our latitudes, as the thermometer was in fact close to or below seasonal normals (1991-2020) in Western Europe, and particularly in France. But this would be forgetting that elsewhere, a large part of the human race suffered exceptional temperatures. Thousands of people had to be evacuated in California after devastating wildfires, while populations in the Balkans, Pakistan and Egypt suffered power cuts, suspending the activity of essential fans, air conditioners and refrigerators - which themselves contribute to global warming...
The proof in the pudding, as they say:
Still on the subject of climate, La Croix focuses on Pakistan, which is definitely on the front line when it comes to the consequences of global warming, with this series of key figures that tell the whole story:
- Pakistan is home to 7,000 glaciers and 3,044 glacial lakes, 36 of which threaten to break up at any moment.
- According to the World Bank, climate change has affected 75 million Pakistanis in three decades. Losses in agriculture and biodiversity are estimated to cost 1 billion euros a year.
- The floods of 2022 claimed 1,700 lives, killed over 1 million head of livestock, destroyed 2 million homes and devastated 13,000 kilometers of roads.
- The total cost of this destruction is estimated at 16 billion euros. The 10 billion euros promised to Pakistan by the international community have not been received. Only 5% of the homes destroyed have been rebuilt.
Finally, a photo illustrating the fatalism that can seize Californian firefighters when faced with the scale of fires during extreme heat waves:
The report of the week comes to us from the Secrétariat Général à la Planification Ecologique (SGPE), with an update on the biomass section of the Plan, which sheds light on the current sources and uses of this flagship resource for the transition. As Breaking (RE)NEWS readers well know, biomass is an essential resource for the ecological transition, as a source of energy, sustainable materials and food for humans and our ecosystems. Produced by photosynthesis in our forests, meadows, cultivated soils and green spaces, biomass is carbon-free and renewable, but in limited quantities and constrained by soil and climate conditions. Hence the looping issues highlighted by ecological planning when the plan was first published. This new edition "updates and clarifies the gaps between available resources and our uses. We are also taking stock of the ongoing work to ensure that our public policies are consistent with the necessary prioritization of biomass uses", explains Faustine Gaymard, Program Director at SGPE, on her LinkedIn page. As with any scarce resource, even if it is renewable, biomass will continue to be increasingly sought-after, which means we need to choose our priority uses carefully...
The PFAS of the week goes by the sweet name of TFA, or trifluoroacetic acid. It's the "eternal pollutant" most present in European drinking water, and it's rarely monitored in Europe, as it's not regulated. Yet TFA accounts for 98% of PFAS present in water, reveals a study by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN Europe), published on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. The vast majority of TFA comes from the degradation of certain pesticides and refrigerant gases. Following an initial study in May 2024 revealing its presence in watercourses, the associations conducted tests on 36 tap water samples and 19 bottled mineral waters in eleven European countries, including France, Austria, Germany and Spain... In all, TFA was detected in 94% of tap waters, and in 63% of mineral waters. The Paris tap water sample showed a concentration of 2,100 nanograms per liter (ng/l), one of the highest in the study. The lack of studies makes it difficult to assess its toxicity, denounces PAN Europe. However, a study conducted by pesticide manufacturer Bayer showed that exposure to TFA caused birth defects in rabbits. The German authorities have therefore requested that this PFAS be classified as a "reprotoxic" substance, i.e. harmful to reproduction. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has begun the assessment, but it will take time, as La Croix points out. La Croix points out that current filtering techniques do not capture TFA. The only technique deemed effective is "reverse osmosis", a very fine filtering system that allows only water molecules to pass through. But it is very expensive and energy-consuming. PAN Europe is also calling for "the polluter pays principle to be applied when water purification is necessary due to chemical contamination", to prevent the cost being passed on to taxpayers.
The EPR of the week, or Extended Producer Responsibility, is that of the catering trade. Adelphe, the Citeo subsidiary in charge of the food and beverage industry, and in particular the Confédération générale de l'alimentation en détail (CGAD) and the confederations of the bakery-pâtisserie (CNBPF), butchery-charcuterie (CFBCT) and crèmerie-fromagerie (FFF) have just announced a partnership to support their members' entry into the EPR system. According to L'Usine Nouvelle, Adelphe has signed a special agreement with these professions to simplify the procedures for declaring packaging placed on the market by the sector, so that it can be recycled, reused and reduced, thus helping professionals in these sectors to comply with regulatory obligations.
This week' s biodiversity hobbyhorse is the beaver! Reintroduced to France fifty years ago, the beaver nibbles away at tree crops and causes flooding, angering local residents. But the benefits of its presence are countless, explains Libération. Hairy, webbed and nocturnal, the beaver is proving extremely effective against the effects of climate change. Virtually extinct at the beginning of the 20th century - there were only a hundred or so left in France - the animal was saved by reintroduction measures and drastic protection. There are now over a million of them in Europe. Proof that living things can flourish alongside us, when humans deign to pay them attention. Sometimes unloved, often misunderstood, the beaver and its structures are formidable allies for rivers. "It's an ingenious species that has a very strong impact on the functioning of its ecosystem," explains Jean-Pierre Jollivet, a naturalist with the Loir-et-Cher Nature association, who took part in the reintroduction of thirteen of these rodents to the département between 1974 and 1976. "The beaver can slow the flow of rivers and reduce flooding, even during periods of heavy rainfall. Its dams are not hermetically sealed, so it can supply water to downstream rivers. These reservoirs improve groundwater recharge and water quality," explains the specialist. And the positive effects on biodiversity are "mind-boggling", says Libération: dams retain nutrients. Vegetation grows massively, improving invertebrate and fish populations. Enhanced wetlands store more carbon, the main cause of climate change.
Our swimming feature of the week, that of the Mayor of Paris, has grown by leaps and bounds, after numerous postponements due to weather (rain) and political events (stuttering elections). Yes, you read that right: Anne Hidalgo took a dip in the Seine, honouring a promise made by Jacques Chirac forty years earlier! And rather nicely, we might add, with a sunken crawl in keeping with the toxicological analyses of the Parisian river. The Mayor swam across the river, accompanied by Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Marc Guillaume, Prefect of the Ile-de-France region, just a few days before the various events to be held in the Seine during the Olympic Games. Sunny weather, water at 20°C, bacteria and reduced flow: the conditions were finally right for the historic plunge of three key figures in the Paris Olympic Games. Proof that the 1.4 billion euros invested in recent years to clean up the Seine have not been wasted. Once again, video and image proof:
This week's seminar was of particular interest to us at (RE)SET, as it brought our teams together on the banks of the Seine, in an atmosphere of joy and good humor. When (RE)SET, champion of the transition and therefore of the resource revolution, gets... resourceful! This green (of course!) and sporty (always) seminar enabled us to salute a year of successes, challenges and changes for the better. Team building with a bang, a top-notch escape game for our inveterate gamers, and sports of all kinds - dubbed the "Olympiad" - reminded us (as we already knew) that it's no coincidence that (RE)SET has always promoted collective effort and consortia: together we go further! Another highlight was the magic show, with a talented performer who had us salivating with his prowess. It's a pity that, as we often repeat here, there's nothing magical about the circular economy or transition - our lives would be so much easier. But "vision without execution is just hallucination", as Thomas Edison once said... Today, more energized and mobilized than ever, the (RE)SET team is ready to continue the adventure!
Our previous edition's riddle was not an easy one, for which we apologize in advance. What does this photo represent? The clue was that it had something to do with metal pollution.
What are these little black dots? They're actually insect larvae, deposited in a lake and acting as sentinels to warn of possible metal pollution, as explained in a fascinating article in The Conversation entitled "Energy transition requires lots of minerals and metals, could impact our lakes".
This week's riddle is also a photo. Please note: any resemblance to a well-known toy would be ... partially misleading! So what's it all about?
Happy reading, happy weekend and happy voting!
[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.]Breaking (RE)NEWS of July 19, 2024
