De retour en France

Here it is.

Shortly after my landing, I promised a few posts in english for you, the Bostonians. Of course, I can't pretend to be a true american writing about his living in France. As some of you used to say: I'am so french.

Neverthess, I left France one year ago and many things have changed. Others haven't like the good wines, the cafés, the art of life, dogs shitting in the streets, strikes & holidays, our belief that eating well is the beginning of happyness... all these things which makes France so unique (-: ...

We also have a new president. But you already know that...

He is everyday on every TV channel except maybe the XXL and Disney channels... but since we don't care and don't watch TV, this is not a problem. You may have heard about his divorce between the war on Terror, the subprime collapse, Paris Hilton and California fires. Here it was like a Dynasty and Dallas marathon... Subversive people have suggested that he is now free to have sex spend more time with the German Chancellor but she loves the strong Euro and our president would like a weaker one... So don't expect any european romance at the highest level. As we say circulez y'a rien à voir (-: ...

Apart from that, France is starting a new Revolution. Surprisingly, nobody speaks about it in the US.

This is indeed one of the few ideas from our new president that I strongly support. France has started a huge debate on environmental issues.

It has ended up today with Sarkozy's conclusions in front of many officials including the head of the European Union Commission (the European administration that smashed out the GE - Honeywell deal and forced Microsoft into opening Windows). Wangari Maathai and Al Gore were there as guest stars.

The whole process was an innovation by itself. Instead of starting a debate inside the congress of pushing forward a new bill, a four month round of debates has been organized involving French administrations, industry and business representatives, civil organizations and unions. Its purpose was to reach a common diagnostic and then to make points of consensus explicit and to shed light on disagreements. A huge set of propositions has been produced and now, the congress and the government will make their choice and push forward some of them.

Today, Sarkozy presented the propositions he wants to push forward for the future. It is still difficult to summarize them especially because most of the technical details need to be worked out but there were quite a bunch of interesting ideas in his speech:

• Improvement of our energetic efficiency by 20 % in 2020.
• Increase to 95 % of our electricity production based on carbon free sources (nuclear and renewable energies).
• One billion euro plan over 4 years on energy efficient engines, biodiversity and environmental health issues.
• Buildings built after 2012 should comply the low energy norm and after 2020 should be energy positive whenever possible.
• Vast renovation plan for old building and houses based on tax reduction to fund energy efficient materials and systems. Complete ban of traditional light bulbs in 2010...
• 2000 km of new high speed train tracks.
• 1500 km of electric T-lines in french cities outside Paris area.
• Tax for heavy trucks driving through France and increase in the rail freight capacity.
• Tax of heavy CO2 emitting vehicles such as SUVs to fund a renewal of our car stock by more energy efficient vehicles.
• Lowering by 50 % of pesticides used in the agriculture.
• Organic food one day per week in French schools restaurants.

He also asked the European Union to tighten up all norms on energy efficiency and environmental impact so that the whole economy would bend towards greener products.

As you know the power of the European Union in norms is so huge that some American foreign politics experts have put forward the idea that Europe is indeed a new type of superpower. Instead of acting through military force, it acts through ideas and values and by defining commercial, industrial environmental norms in a global economy (see "The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy" by T.R. Reid). At least Jack Welch may agree with this thesis.

Last but not least, our President asked the head of the EU commission to study the possibility of a tax on marchandises produced in countries that haven't ratified and applied the Kyoto protocol. I'am pretty sure that many people in America will love this one (-: ...

Of course, not all of this will be done as initially planned. Don't expect lobbies to remain silent forever... Who is paying is also a tough question. The carbon tax still needs to be worked out as a replacement of existing taxes.

But there is a strong drive here towards a green revolution as I predicted in previous posts (here, also here and there) . Beside the media show, you may be surprised to see TV ads here in France. Whereas in the US, they want you to buy those big SUVs and eat junk food, here it's like another world: many ads focus on heat pumps, energy diagnostics, efficient cars and healthy food... What a change! It is so different...

Well, it's time for me to end this already very long post. More are to follow... I'll try to post more on my everyday life in France from a one-year-american-perspective.

Comments

[BBen]

Hum... La rupture attendue ce "grenelle" ? La "révolution écologique" est en marche ?...

Voir cette vidéo d'Isabelle Delannoy, spécialiste du développement durable, qui explique que la plupart des "annonces phare" du Grenelle ne sont que des mises aux normes européennes, et qu'une partie des mesures ne pourrait ne bénéficier qu'aux plus aisés :

http://www.marianne2.fr/Isabelle-Delannoy-le-Grenelle,-une-mascarade-au-benefice-des-riches-_a80370.html?PHPSESSID=b2d47d66aa02a9164919c3304a485752

Bref, cet événement planétaire qu'a été le "grenelle" n'était finalement qu'une colossalle mascarade, qui renvoie au statut de bal costumé de village celle des carnaval de Venise et de rio réunis.

Comme d'habitude, la machine de propagande a tourné à plein régime. Après avoir sauvé les infirmières bulgares, les universités, nos retraites, et surtout les rentes des plus riches (mais pas son mariage...;-)), super-Sarko a sauvé la planète. Même l'auteur de ce blog s'est semble-t-il laissé berné par "l'illusion collective" à laquelle est en proie notre pays depuis le printemps dernier...

La vrai "rupture" écologique aurait nécessité que Sarkozy rompe avec le socle de sa pensée politique, c'est à dire son credo matérialiste et consumériste fondé sur le "toujours plus" (de croissance, de consommation, d'accumulation individuelle de biens matériels et de richesses).
Sans remise en cause de ce dogme, impossible de prendre en compte la réalité d'une planète aux ressources finies, et impossible de basculer vers une société de la modération et de la sobriété. Autant tenter alors de réaliser le mariage de la carpe et du lapin...