Since Monday, June 20, on the Esplanade des Invalides in Paris, 40 scientists have made themselves available to new deputies to “train” them in climate and environmental issues. 154 of them played the game, out of 577 elected. The organizers, an outgoing deputy, a group of students and a climatologist, believe they have won their bet, the first of its kind. But the road still seems long.
What’s better than a heat wave early to raise awareness of the issues of climate change and the closely related issues of biodiversity? At the end of a week of intense heat everywhere in France and the day after the legislative elections, two “barnums” were erected for three days, a few tens of meters from the National Assembly. A “biodiversity climate mandate” sign announced the color of this green dating of a new kind.
” The objective is to train as many MPs as possible in climate and biodiversity issues, explains Léa Falco, a graduate of Sciences Po and a member of the student collective Réveil Écologique. The environment is a political but non-partisan issue. You don’t have a single party that doesn’t talk about the economy. The environment also concerns all sectors. You have elected officials who say “ecology is not my subject, contact Nupes or EELV“. We can’t hear that. Tomorrow, there shouldn’t be a single party that doesn’t talk about ecology, from a scientific, sourced point of view. »
Slogan of the operation: bring to elected officials the knowledge accumulated in the reports, in particular from the IPCC. Sophie Szopa, CEA research director at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, addressed a total of fifteen deputies. For her, publishing these reports, including their summaries, “ has not been enough so far to take the necessary decisions to limit climate change. Accompanying this science to decision-makers seems essential to us today. We therefore make them aware of the systemic, interconnected side of the climate and biodiversity, of the need to act on all sectors or even of the risks of idealizing either the “techno-solutionism”, or to think that nature can save everything. Afterwards, the political choices belong to them, it is just a question of making them in awareness of scientific facts. To do this, each elected volunteer received a summary of ten key points from the expert group’s sixth report upon arrival.
► Read also: IPCC report: to limit global warming, “it’s now or never”
“ Neither right nor left »
A total of 154 deputies were “trained” through contact with 40 renowned scientists working in public research organisations. It is Together!, the presidential majority, which sent the most elected representatives, with 80 deputies, followed by Nupes, a left and far left coalition, with 70 registered deputies. An elected Les Républicains and an elected National Rally made the trip at the end of the day on Wednesday.
For the organizers, it is a great success: it’s great, we are super satisfied “, exclaims at the end of the day Matthieu Orphelin, ex-elected ecologist, co-carrier of the initiative. ” It is a world first. These new MPs have the state of the art on climate and biodiversity. So it is with an elected official from a riding located on the coast who wanted to find out about maritime issues. Jean-Baptiste Sallée, oceanographer at the CNRS, author of the Giec, was able to answer him directly. Coming from local elected officials with a national mandate, the questions could concern all scales of the territory and beyond, noted the researchers, ranging from concrete concerns for cities and fields to the global consequences of the erosion of biodiversity, such as the seriousness, often misunderstood or unrecognized, of the mass extinction of insects or that of blue frogs.
If the word “training”, used for a discussion of 30 minutes on average on a corner of the table, is abusive, the awareness-raising operation has been able to hook the entire political panel. A tour de force for a very divisive subject on many aspects. ” Ecology is neither right nor left “, underlines the deputy LR Maxime Minot, 34, re-elected for a second term in the Oise. This former village mayor regrets the ” lack of information for local elected officials. In the rural area where he lives, he says he has noticed during ” for the past five years “, the ” degradation of biodiversity », the disappearance of insects in particular. It came ” personally “, by ” responsibility “. For him, this week complicated – the parties elect their group president – is not judiciously chosen, but ” whoever wants to come can easily find twenty minutes “.
” Law can’t do everything »
Throughout the afternoon, the elected officials arrived in dribs and drabs, forming small heterogeneous groups with their scientific interlocutors, in the shade of the plane trees and under the tent. The press is invited to move away for greater freedom of discussion. “ Human activity is 100% responsible “Warming, comments for his part Olivier Faure, boss of the Socialist Party, re-elected in Seine-et-Marne last weekend. “ There is a scientific consensus on that and we have a duty to take this into account “. In 2020, a study by Ademe revealed that more than one in five French parliamentarians think that there is no scientific consensus on the human origin of global warming.
As an echo, Léa Falco keeps up the pressure for the future: ” It is an achievement in itself to have pitched this tent for three days and to show the politicians that everything is in their hands now. We have the observation, solutions, possibilities, so the path of ecological transition is with them. »
However, Luc Lamirault, Horizons MP (presidential majority), does not hear it that way at all: “ the law cannot do everything, it is individual behavior that must change. “Freshly elected from a rural constituency of Eure-et-Loir, he came here” look for information “. ” The French, who represent 1% of the world’s population, are asked to be exemplary. But we cannot completely disrupt our economy, at the risk of losing competitiveness. It has to be bearable for the French wallet “, he warns.
The features drawn after three days of intervention, the climatologist Christophe Cassou, co-organizer, evokes disparate situations: ” Many are very aware of the issues. Others are confronted with the alibi of inaction: fatalism – “anyway it’s screwed” – or the rejection of the fault on others – “others pollute more”. »
The legislature that is just beginning will quickly bring its share of laws of prime importance. ” The draft law on the state budget for 2023 will determine the investments, in particular green. And we know that we will need a real financial engine to launch the transition », Illustrates Léa Falco. Also to come, the “climate energy” law which must set French policy in the light of European ambitions to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions: – 55% by 2030. “ We are starting to talk about planning because we realize that it is essential not to navigate with a wet finger when it comes to climate. These experts are valuable in this respect because it is also their job to do forecasts. »
The fact remains that the elected officials concerned, interested or already connoisseurs of climate and environment issues formed the bulk of the troops registered. What about the rest of the Hemicycle? ” Our goal now is to have mandatory training organized by the National Assembly, envisages Léa Falco, of Ecological awakening. Because today, when deputies do not pass an important law for the environment or do not take a position, we do not know if they do that because they are not aware of the issues or if it is dictated by their political line. With a common base of knowledge, there will no longer be this uncertainty: they will decide knowingly. »