“The challenge of the century”. This is, with a little emphasis, the way in which the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion will approach the subject of the thermal renovation of public buildings, and schools in particular, during a dedicated meeting, May 9. Elected officials will be invited, building and finance players and Caisse des dépôts, under the chairmanship of Minister Christophe Béchu, to breathe new life into this project, brought up to date by Emmanuel Macron himself, in an exchange with the readers of Parisian, April 24. The president then declared that he wanted to “launch a major ecological restoration project [des] schools.” The end of numb fingers in winter and stuffy classes in summer?
“The challenge is major, explains Christophe Béchu to L’Express. It is both climatic and budgetary and concerns the well-being of the users of these buildings.” Town halls of villages, colleges, hospitals, prefectures… The French public housing stock represents around 400 million m2. Three-quarters are the responsibility of local authorities, half of which are dedicated to school education. In a context of high energy bills, interest in the subject is growing in communities, especially since, according to figures from Ademe for 2019, buildings concentrate nearly 80% of their energy consumption, and more than two third of their energy expenditure.
Files by the thousands
The State is expected at the turn on the question of financing. “During this meeting, we are going to focus on the green fund, voted last December”, answers Christophe Béchu, referring to this envelope of 2 billion euros intended to accelerate the energy transition in local authorities. “Thousands of files have been submitted. Of the first thousand accepted, there are 170 schools, which will benefit from a total of 35 million euros in aid”. Christophe Béchu also confirms that this green fund “will be made permanent”.
The range of eligible actions is wide, from the control of heating systems to the insulation of the roof, from the demineralization/vegetation of playgrounds to major rehabilitation. “In June 2022, the conditions of the ferry had deteriorated, and this will get worse because the high heat periods will extend from May to October, underlines Guillaume Dolques, research officer for Adaptation and Communities at I4CE, the Institute of l “economy for the climate. We therefore call for the subject of adaptation to be well integrated. Each renovation project must ask itself the question of thermal renovation, with a 30 or even 50-year vision”.
Third-party financing, to smooth the investment
The Minister also intends to present a freshly voted device: third-party financing, now accessible to communities. This new tool, for which the implementing decrees are being drafted, will allow them to solicit a third party (private operator, semi-public company, local public company, etc.) to pre-finance the works. Reimbursement is then spread over time, according to the capacities of the local authority and the “third-party financier” is remunerated on the basis of the energy savings made thanks to this renovation. However, third-party financing “will not solve the central issue of the massification (of) investments”, judged at the beginning of the year François Thomazeau, project manager Communities and Public Financing of I4CE, in a forum. Despite partial data, the institute ventured to figures that reflect the magnitude of the task. “We estimate the necessary investments of around 4 to 5 billion euros per year for all public buildings, including nearly 3 billion for local authorities alone, more than double what is invested today. ” points one of his reports. It is therefore time to accelerate the movement to place itself in the trajectory of the “tertiary decree” of 2019, which requires all tertiary buildings of at least 1000 m2 to reduce their energy consumption compared to 2010 by 40 % in 2030, 50% in 2040 and 60% in 2050.
Mayor of Périgueux and co-chair of the Education Commission of the Association of Mayors of France, Delphine Labails pleads for the establishment of a “methodology which will include a diagnosis, the development of specifications with elected officials and a plan funding. From there, we can work. The granting by the Banque des Territoires [NDLR : branche de la Caisse des dépôts] interest-free loans would be a real avenue of work!”. This is not the one explored at this stage. subject is important, especially for small communities. “The main brakes are not only financial, recognizes Kosta Kastrinidis, director of loans at the Banque des Territoires. Local authorities need engineering support to determine which buildings to prioritize, the nature of the work to be carried out, project management assistance, and to ensure that the expected results will be achieved.”
The 190,000 State buildings are also the subject of reflection. “A working group dedicated to the renovation of state buildings will make an arbitration within a month”, tells us the Ministry of Transformation and Public Service.