They were the exception. The operators of French train stations, metro stations and airports undertook on Monday March 27, under the aegis of the State, to turn off illuminated advertisements by the end of the year when these places are closed to the public, to reduce this source of energy consumption.
In an effort to save energy, a decree issued in October 2022 requires lighting advertising devices to be turned off at night between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. But airports, train stations, metro stations, which can operate outside these time slots, have not yet taken measures in this direction.
To contribute their stone to the building of the “energy sobriety” called for by the government, the operators of these infrastructures (in particular SNCF and Aéroports de Paris) and the advertising agencies (JCDecaux and Mediatransports) signed a “commitment charter”on the sidelines of a meeting organized by the Ministries of Energy Transition and Transport to take stock of the sector’s sobriety efforts.
In this document, the signatories undertake to ensure that digital screens and backlit posters can be “switched off or, failing that, put on standby during public closing hours”by 1is January 2024. “Obviously, it starts now, but many screens have to be equipped with a standby or shutdown device” which often does not exist, observed the Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune. In short, install switches.
“The bet of incitement, rather than that of coercion”
In an appendix to the document, the SNCF undertakes, for example, to reduce the electricity consumption of its illuminated advertising fleet by 71% in 2031 compared to 2022, and to reduce the carbon emissions linked to these devices by 45% over the same period.
The National Agency for the Environment and Energy Management (Ademe) noted in 2020 that the 1,400 Parisian digital advertising screens present in the metro and stations consumed “as much electricity in one year as twenty-one schools with ten classes”. She added that the annual greenhouse gas emissions of these 1,400 screens represented “as much as the emissions due to the use of the Paris metro by 20 million passengers”.
Environmental activists have multiplied actions in recent months to turn off or cover advertising screens, light advertisements, which petitions call for a ban. MP Delphine Batho (Génération Écologie) tabled a bill in the National Assembly prohibiting all forms of digital and illuminated advertising in public spaces.
“We are betting on incitement and trust, rather than coercion”, noted the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Satisfied with “Act I” of the sobriety plan launched in 2022, it calls for continuing and expanding the efforts undertaken. She says she is preparing measures for this summer, and in particular enforcing the law which provides that we do not use the air conditioning if it is less than 26 °C. “It’s a cultural issue”she pointed out.
Mme Pannier-Runacher wants “everyone is an actor in the reduction of energy consumption”. The government intends to encourage the French to drive at 110 km / h and intends to embark on the site of the electrification of heavy goods vehicles, according to the two ministers.