Ecology: “Our dependence on fossil fuels is a real geopolitical Achilles heel,” points out researcher François Gemenne

This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the interview above. Click on the video to watch it in its entirety.

Florence O’Kelly: Is this crisis, ultimately, the best news for the climate in Franceat least for a long time?

French Gemenne: I don’t think we should rejoice in a crisis, obviously, but on the other hand, this crisis still contains certain lessons, and indeed can lead us to realize the extent to which our dependence on fossil fuels weighs on our purchasing power, weighs on the competitiveness of our businesses and is also a geopolitical Achilles heel. We saw it clearly in the report you just showed, people who leave their cars to take the train, people who today buy an electric car, we also have a peak in sales of electric cars. These are not people who became green overnight, they are people who made an economic calculation and realized that indeed, a more ecological choice was also a more economical choice for them.

A jump of 48% since January in the sale of electric vehicles, except that before, this market was almost devastated. Do the French have a short memory?

Not just the French, the Europeans in general. Indeed, we tend not to learn enough from crises. We could have already had this thought at the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where we had already said to ourselves that we must put in place sobriety plans, because if we buy gas, we are financing the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine. In reality, our dependence on fossil fuels is a real geopolitical Achilles heel and we absolutely must learn the lessons of these successive crises.

What is the lesson? Is it that when it costs too much, that’s when the French turn to solutions that are more sustainable?

First, a big lesson is indeed that it remains the price signal which is still the major determinant of behavioral changes, both for households, but also for industries and for businesses, and that if we want to succeed in the transition, we must put forward the interests information that can be found there. What strikes me is that in recent months, we have had this backlash phenomenon, this sort of backlash against ecology. We said: it will cost too much, we no longer have the means, it will harm the competitiveness of our companies. In reality, these are the same arguments which, today, should lead us to accelerate the transition.

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