On the occasion of the renewal of this roadmap, the community wants everyone to feel concerned by the subject. A climate council will be set up. The opposition denounces “double talk”.
Le Figaro Nantes
The metropolis of Nantes will adopt a new climate plan, the third since 2007. But not just any climate plan. This time, a new aspect is added to this now mandatory tool which aims to define strategic objectives in terms of energy transition. This is a “popular climate plan”. This is what Johanna Rolland, president of Nantes Métropole, insisted on during a press conference dedicated to the subjects discussed during the next metropolitan council on June 27 and 28. The draft of this plan covering the period 2024-2030 will be debated there.
After setting out the new objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 46% within six years, the elected socialist insisted on the mobilization of everyone in this approach. “A climate plan of this nature can very quickly become very technical, not to say very techno; very dense, not to say very incomprehensible; very dense, not to say very illegible”she noted, while wishing to make it accessible to all. “In this new stage, we really want to give this dimension of a popular climate plan, in the sense of everyone’s ability to understand the path that we are collectively proposing”.
A “happy” change in society
“We have been working in the metropolis on the issue of lifestyles for a long time and our challenge is to embark on a change in society that is happy”added Tristan Riom, elected environmentalist and metropolitan vice-president responsible for climate. “We must move from a world where consumption is synonymous with freedom and self-realization to a world where it is collective autonomy and fair consumption that allows us to be happy,” he advocates. 98 actions were worked on over six months with local stakeholders (consular chambers, activist associations, business representatives, etc.). Among the proposals, we find in particular the ambition to launch studies for a solar device, to create an urban microclimate observatory or to increase the modal share of cycling by 2030. The ambition targeted in this area was initially 12%: “The path we have traveled together since the start of the mandate allows us to announce that we propose to go further on this subject with a target of 15%”, boasted Johanna Rolland, also mayor of Nantes, welcoming the territory’s action for years in terms of ecological bifurcation. In 2013, Nantes was elected European green capital.
“Between 2004 and 2024, we reduced greenhouse gas emissions per capita by 35%. Objectively, what happens in this metropolis has an impact”, rejoiced his deputy Tristan Riom. Before qualifying this subject with an image: “We have wooden stirrers at work at the coffee machine, so we think the job is done. But no, when we look at the scientific data, we are still far from achieving carbon neutrality.. He assures: “If we continue at the current pace, we will achieve carbon neutrality by 2320, 270 years late!”
We have a metropolitan left that I find a little schizophrenic on these subjects
Laurence Garnier, opposition LR metropolitan councilor in Nantes
Especially since for this EELV activist, “global warming will be an accelerator of social inequalities and faced with this, ecological transformation allows us to move towards a more egalitarian world”. It is therefore in this context that a “climate council” will be launched, with the actors who participated in the co-construction of the plan, the final adoption of which will be voted on in spring 2025. In addition, awareness-raising actions carried out among schoolchildren and the labeling of eco-cultural events will be proposed, as will the participation of 1000 households each year in “climate challenges”.
“1000 out of 300,000 is 1 out of 300. The ambition remains modest”, underlines Laurence Garnier, opposition metropolitan councilor and leader of the center-right opposition in Nantes. If her group will vote on the deliberation concerning this draft Territorial Climate Air Energy Plan (PCAET), she does not fail to highlight a “very damaging double talk”. “We have a metropolitan left that I find a little schizophrenic on these subjects. At the same time, they have this desire to involve residents more in climate plan initiatives and at the same time, they are the same ones who continue to stigmatize our fellow citizens who have an individual house, a car, a barbecue, even a swimming pool . So we cannot both convey this message which is in the right direction and have this message of stigmatization all the time.”. And to fear that “It’s not the participatory PCAETs that will remedy this stigmatizing discourse”.
