The conference was attended by the Minister for the Environment, Carole Dieschbourg, and the Minister for Energy, Claude Turmes. Both were optimistic about the country's goals. The National Climate and Energy Plan (PNEC) aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 55% until 2030, compared with 2005.
Transport was of course one of the main issues tackled - be that public transport, electromobility or remote work. But a few other solutions and suggestions were also discussed, such as the importance of each sector knowing where it should, or indeed must, be headed in terms of emissions. Climate legislation stipulates that each sector should get its own targets, which can be increased with time.
As an example, industrial manufacturing produced 474kt (kilotons) of CO2 emissions in 2005. The aim is to get this down to 119kt in 2030. The residential sector should be reduced from 1,216kt in 2005 to 418kt.
There have been negotiations with the Fedil, says Claude Turmes, resulting in a package which will enable the government to enforce the goals set for 2030, with obligatory audits for each industry sector. The various emission thresholds are decided in an interdepartmental committee, which also monitors recent results. All of this is set out in the PNEC.
There are further plans to include the public in the decision process via an open platform, and to form a scientific observatory body which can advise the government in matters of climate.
Electricity is another aspect with considerable margin for improvement, especially as the country could produce a lot of it by itself. The current transport of fossil fuels is expensive and wasteful. There is a large potential for installing solar systems, notably on roofs of car parks. A 5,000kW solar system will shortly be installed at the Kronospan plant in Sanem, Claude Turmes added.
