Emmanuel Macron again called on the French on Thursday, and in particular businesses, to implement without delay the energy sobriety measures which, if everyone respects them, will allow France to “spend the winter” even if it is rough.
Speaking to entrepreneurs at Bpifrance Inno Génération (BIG) in Paris, the Head of State defended the sobriety plan to be presented by the government in the afternoon.
The objective, “is to have a few very simple mechanisms to collectively succeed in reducing by 10% what we usually consume”, he explained. “If the whole nation manages to meet this objective, which is purely voluntary – you don’t need a decree of law, complicated things – if we all mobilize to meet it, in the worst scenarios we will spend the winter”, he assured. “This is what makes us master of our destiny, even if there is no more gas coming from Russia, which is still the most likely given what has happened these last days,” he said.
10% less energy
Emmanuel Macron again stressed that “the energy we save is the cheapest”. But “that does not mean producing less or moving towards a degrowth economy. Not at all, sobriety just means gaining in efficiency” by “tracking hidden costs at all times (…) everything we can do to produce even more but spending less”.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and several ministers must detail in the afternoon the dozens of measures of the sobriety plan, such as the call for less heating and less lighting, the encouragement of teleworking, the financial incentive for carpooling or even the cut of hot water in the administrations… With the objective of reducing by 10% the energy consumption of France in two years, and in the interval, to make that the country passes the winter without cut of gas nor electricity.