Fighting against climate change : local authorities must choose the right solutions !

Today, climate change is the main environmental threat that weigh down on countries and their territories. Reaching the international objectives regarding the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is a challenge that governments and local communities must take up.

Energy sobriety and efficiency, renewable energy development : today solutions exist to fight against climate change. And they are big opportunities for local authorities not only to reduce their emissions, but also to increase the attractiveness of their territories.

Energy efficiency is the basis of the energy revolution : for example, a real European policy of energy efficiency would reduce the Union consumption of energy by 20 %, reduce the European energy bill by 60 billion Euros each year and reduce CO2 emissions by 780 millions each year by 2020.

It’s a simple, profitable and reliable way to reduce emissions from territories as the same time as reducing the energy bill of local authorities and their citizens. Today, it’s the answer to the climate crisis, the financial crisis, the loss of households’ purchasing power and the issue of energy precariousness.

At last, energy efficiency and renewable energy are two opportunities to develop local and qualified employments. The International Labour Organization remind us that 2,3 millions jobs have been created in the renewable energy industry in the last years and considers that the creation of ‘green jobs’ will significantly raise in the coming years.

That’s why we are asking local authorities to choose the right solutions ! Governments and local authorities must give priority to energy sobriety and efficiency and renewable energy and not false solutions, like nuclear energy or CO2 capture and storage. Nuclear energy is far from a solution to fight against climate change : it is a too expensive energy, too dangerous and marginal in terms of production to solve the climate crisis (the global nuclear energy represents only 2.5% of the global energy consumption). CO2 capture and storage technology, if its efficiency was proved, will not be commercially available before 2030. And we only have 100 months to reverse the curve of our greenhouse gas emissions.

It is time to give main priority to Energy sobriety and efficiency, and to the development of renewable energy, both internationally and locally.