“It’s cool, isn’t it? » In the salons of the ministries and the Elysée, where the heating must not exceed 19 degrees, this word of welcome now serves as a demonstration that the State applies to itself what it professes. While at the start of the week revelations about legal affairs affected the executive, the presidential entourage even valued Emmanuel Macron’s turtleneck as a pledge of modernity. Is exemplarity now measured by the yardstick of sobriety? In the plan presented by Elisabeth Borne, Thursday October 6, a chapter entitled “the exemplary State” thus underlines that “The State is doing everything possible to reduce its energy consumption by 10%”.
Except that, according to our information, several restrictive measures reported to Matignon have been excluded from the final plan. The first of these appeared in the Head of State’s programme, then in the Prime Minister’s declaration of general policy: to make ” obligatory “ the indexation of the remuneration of the managers of large companies on the respect of their environmental objectives. A measure with a positive impact on the ecological level, had gauged the Montaigne Institute, since it would promote investment in areas favorable to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
In a working document that The world obtained, the Ministry of Transformation and Public Service considers that it would be appropriate to apply the same measure to senior state officials. “It would be logical for the State to apply this principle to its leaders for whom it is relevant”, even underlined the services intended for Antoine Pellion, the general secretary for ecological planning. The idea, for this time, has collapsed.
Replace the car fleet
Another proposal was to make teleworking days mandatory for public officials, in order to close buildings. The idea, again, was discarded in favor of an incentive measure. It remains, however, in the pipes depending on the energy savings that will be achieved. The reduction of office space in the ministries and administrations, too complex to be implemented this autumn, was also not retained but should reappear in the environmental planning plan, currently being drawn up.
Finally, members of the government had recommended replacing the state car fleet with electric vehicles. With in mind the embarrassment caused, at the end of July, by the fifteen cars with their engines purring in the courtyard of the Elysée, and offered to the view of the cameras, long before the Head of State became alarmed of the “end of abundance” fossil energy resources. “From the moment we say to the French: the State, the ministries will set an example, it will require changing a certain number of behaviors”conceded government spokesman Olivier Véran.
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