Grenelle Environnement

The Grenelle de l'environnement is an open multi-party debate in France that reunites representatives of national and local government and organizations (industry, labor, professional associations, non-governmental organizations) on an equal footing, with goal of unifying a position on a specific theme. The aim of the "Grenelle Environment Round Table" (as it might be called in English), instigated by the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy in the summer of 2007, is to define the key points of public policy on ecological and sustainable development issues for the coming five years. Think of it as a long town-hall meeting.

The name “Grenelle” comes from the first conference bringing all these players together which took place in May 1968 in the Rue de Grenelle.

Temporary introduction

The following materials are presented here as a working introduction and first-cut entry. The hope is that the Wikipedia process will now take hold and in a short time we will have a solid entry for this important event and tool for sustainable development and social justice.

The current (and much more complete) entry in French is available at http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenelle_de_l%27environnement. You can of course translate it with http://translate.google.com/translate_t)

peech by M. Jean-Louis Borloo

Speech by M. Jean-Louis Borloo, Ministre d’Etat, Minister for Ecology and Sustainable Planning and Development, in the National Assembly (excerpts)Paris, 3 October 2007(…)

The first phase of the “Grenelle Environnement”¹ ended a few days ago with the presentation of eight reports. The mere fact that it went smoothly has already proved the doubters wrong. Who would have put any odds on us being able to organize a dispassionate debate with over 300 people from backgrounds as diverse as the environmental voluntary organizations, trade unions, business world, elected representatives and State representatives? Basically there’s a very simple explanation for this, and I can tell you what it is with absolute certainty: the themes tackled by the Grenelle reflect French people’s concerns. In fact, public opinion has already changed: 93% of the French say they are ready to make efforts every day to help the environment; they have understood the importance of these issues. This change in attitude is a revolution because our citizens have understood that the battle against global warming and pollution doesn’t just involve a series of declarations of intent, dialogues between experts and between heads of State, legislation, decrees and international treaties, but in the first place a whole raft of individual decisions and acts in their daily lives; they have understood that there was a link between the way they behave and the environmental occurrences being observed on a large scale.

(…)Indeed the government firmly believes that we can change things only if the whole of society moves forward at the same time, if the whole producer-consumer chain mobilizes and everyone decides to join the battle. Seen from this angle, the environment isn’t only a matter to be dealt with by the government, an important – but only one – player among others. This means persuading businesses that going green won’t hurt their competitiveness, but is an opportunity to win new markets and offer new services and create new jobs. It means persuading the French that going green won’t damage purchasing power or is a luxury reserved for a wealthy minority of inhabitants of large urban areas, but a key investment for the future. It means convincing the French that it shouldn’t cost more to take a tram or the underground – where they exist of course – than their cars, that it isn’t more expensive to invest in energy savings than to waste energy for which they will have to pay a high price, and that sustainable development isn’t a tragedy and still less a backward step, but a tremendous opportunity for investment, productivity gains and increased purchasing power. (...)

I don’t want to pre-empt the conclusions of the final round table at the end of October, but, from reading the reports, it seems to me that some consensual guidelines are already emerging.

ACTION GUIDELINES

1. To start with, we need to show people the growth potential of certain economic sectors: this is the case of renewable energies, the construction industry where there needs to be a major effort to improve thermal performance – the sector accounts for 42% of our final energy consumption! – particularly in older buildings, the utilities with a view to curbing demand, and the transport sector, starting with mass transport. We’re extremely keen to stand out from our main competitors in these new very high added-value sectors which will form the basis of tomorrow’s growth.

2. The second imperative is that environmental protection mustn’t be the pretext for an overall rise in taxation. I really want things to be clear on this. There must be no confusion between the idea of using taxes as a signal to guide or encourage the French to adopt a behaviour and the idea, which I am firmly against, of making eco-taxes a way of increasing budgetary revenue. I don’t want to bring in "stealth taxes" because when you think about it, the best eco-tax is the one which eventually disappears. I believe that our compatriots and their representatives wouldn’t understand us doing that and it would be tantamount to breaking the contract made between our parliamentary majority and the French. So any eco-taxes must be compensated for and the roadmap President Sarkozy has drawn up is based on the premise of keeping taxes and social security contributions at a constant level.

3. Third principle: no one must be left in an impossible position. You can’t on one hand ask the French to change their cars, method of transport and, more broadly, their behaviour, if on the other, we can’t offer them real efficient and credible alternatives. I don’t want anything banned without there being an alternative solution or anything made compulsory without provision of support. (…)

4. Finally, fourth principle: all the participants agree with the view that only through local measures, at levels closest to people’s daily lives, such as, for example, the district, town or conurbation, will we succeed in bringing about in-depth changes of behaviour. Great principles, ambitious goals and good intentions will never replace underground, tram and bus services and cycle paths, etc., tailored to people’s daily lives. I’m not telling you this as a minister but as a local elected representative.

The Grenelle has enabled agreement to be reached on these shared diagnoses and on common principles of action. It now remains to define the 15 to 20 fundamental areas for action over the coming years. (…) The Grenelle isn’t a machine for manufacturing consensus against the advice of the players, but we have to address the expectations of the French.

AREAS FOR ACTION

How? Without being exhaustive, I’d like to talk to you about some major areas for action – the concrete measures will, of course, need to be fine-tuned. We have to tackle the most important problems, be it greenhouse gas emissions or the various pollutants which damage our health.For example, we know we have to launch a vast plan to reduce energy consumption with, as its backdrop, the fairly simple idea that cutting demand is the most efficient and cheapest way of reducing our energy bill. We have, of course, to begin with the sectors where there is potential for major economies, where we have a genuine range of options for obtaining visible results. This is, for instance, the case of old buildings. So we’ll have to agree on targets for cutting consumption in existing buildings by specific dates, which presupposes the existence of a plan for reaching the required standards, increasing the construction of HEQ [high environmental quality] buildings and a policy of clear and identifiable labelling. And secondly I believe we have to tell the French the truth, be educators, explain that what’s involved isn’t only an expense but an investment, with the certain prospect of a return on that investment thanks to the lower energy bill – this, irrespective of the expected new jobs in the building industry and energy services if, as I hope, the relevant companies deliver.

We know too that restoring the competitiveness of mass transport will play a key role. This somewhat obscure term masks a radical reform of our transport policy. It isn’t just a matter of scheduling the building of new infrastructure, but of making it easier for people and goods to travel using low-emission modes of transport: rail (freight and passenger), waterways, sea transport and public transport. For all this to be possible, simultaneously, new services must be provided, the sector organized more competitively and a new way found for scheduling our infrastructure programme. More trams and freight trains where, overall, they are more competitive than the other modes of transport, particularly road and air.

On top of this, there is a technological dimension, crucial but not enough in itself to reduce vehicle pollution, together with changes in legislation. (…)

Finally, we will have to launch – and this is a goal I share with my friend Michel Barnier – a discussion on the future of agriculture. I want an end to the artificial opposition between agriculture and ecology. (…) We have to get results on water quality if only to meet public health targets: this presupposes reducing pesticides – and here disagreement remains only on the scale and ways of doing it. And the same applies to pollutants in general. (…)

CONCLUSIONS

I come to the conclusions, which can be summed up in three messages: (…) Grenelle is a starting point. There will be workshops, legislation, commitments, and an ongoing process monitoring the results: at every stage Parliament and its committees will be fully involved. (…)

secondly, our action must be built on at European level and in the international fora. France must be exemplary in the fight against global warming and environmental protection, but she can’t be an isolated player in the battle. We must regain the lead: next year’s French presidency and December’s Bali conference offer us a launch window we mustn’t miss;

I want, finally, to be clear on what the “Grenelle Environnement” isn’t, since there are concerns. To take action, we must no longer keep going the artificial battles which French society already views as out of date. It’s a matter of acting responsibly and basically one of common sense;

economic development and environmental protection aren’t incompatible. On the contrary, we know that the economies which have acted soonest will be more competitive than the others; revising our criteria for scheduling the building of our country’s infrastructure doesn’t mean halting it.On 24 September this year, during the conference on climate change held in New York, President Sarkozy reiterated the need to avoid going beyond the point of no return. This point of no return has been estimated to be 2°C in 2050. Why? Because if average world temperature is then rising by 2°C we won’t be able to turn the clock back.

We’ve got to realize that we’re entering a new world which confronts us with the challenge of scarcity. Scarcity of fossil resources and land, and a dwindling number of species. Basically, we need to demonstrate that a sustainable economy – which operates within the constraints of the ecosystem – is possible. To date, this hasn’t been demonstrated anywhere. France, a magnificent country with a temperate climate, can do this. It remains for us to organize ourselves. If we find the way to do it and present a really united front, with 60 million French working together, we’ll succeed.

(…)We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we’re borrowing it from our children. Thank you./.

¹ The “Grenelle Environnement” is a conference bringing together the government, local authorities, trade unions, business and voluntary sectors to draw up a plan of action of concrete measures to tackle the environmental issue. The name “Grenelle” comes from the first conference bringing all these players together which took place in May 1968 in the Rue de Grenelle.

References

* http://www.legrenelle-environnement.fr/grenelle-environnement/spip.php?rubrique112
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenelle
* http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenelle_de_l%27environnement
* http://www.grenelle-environnement.fr/
* http://www.pacte-ecologique.org/observatoire/grenelle-environnement.php
* http://www.contre-grenelle.org/
* http://fr.youtube.com/GrenellEnvironnement
* http://www.lemonde.fr/web/sequence/0,2-959155,1-0,0.html -