Active seniors and young people are trying to unite around a “generational alliance for the climate”

by time news

Some have the privilege of age and refuse to be ostracized from society, others have the privilege of youth, but fear their future. It is under the allegorical scenes from birth to death on the painted ceilings of the former town hall at 4e district of Paris – where the Climate Academy is based – that the Alliance of Generations for the Climate announced the launch of its “think and do tank” on Thursday 23 June.

Created in October 2021, this movement aims to set up intergenerational projects to accelerate an ecological and energy transition that is still struggling. He counts as sponsors the climatologist Jean Jouzel, the former minister and secretary of state Corinne Lepage and Marie-Anne Montchamp, and the founder of the Circle of economists, Jean-Hervé Lorenzi.

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At the origin of the project, Jacques Brégeon, doctor of science, passed by the ministry of industry and the commissions of the Grenelle of the environment, who devoted most of his career to higher education. “We have 8 million “young people” [contraction de jeunes et seniors] shelved in France, he shouts. I would love for the few years I have left to contribute to improving the lives of my children and my grandchildren”.

No generation conflict

Seeing a divide between generations, he takes as proof the recent punch of the graduates of AgroParisTech who refuse jobs considered deleterious for the environment, and the substantive work of the collective For an ecological awakening. In the room, some point out that not all young people are mobilized and that the oldest are not all indifferent to the climate issue either. There is no conflict of generations around the climate, assured for its part the Jean Jaurès foundation in a report published in January. Above all, Jacques Brégeon takes issue with the defeatism of those of his generation who say to themselves that he is “already too late”.

“We will not get by without intergenerational to divide greenhouse gas emissions by six by 2050”confirms the economist Alain Villemeur, who came to express the support for this initiative of the Demographic Transitions Economic Transitions chair within the Louis Bachelier Institute, of which he is scientific director. “We estimate the cost of the transition at 40 to 50 billion euros per year in France, but the financial and real estate assets are largely concentrated in the hands of the over 55s, so they can have their homes insulated and s ‘steer towards green investments’he pleads.

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