After energy savings, decarbonization objective for the administration

After the energy sobriety plan unveiled in October, which aimed to reduce the state's electricity and gas consumption by 10% between 2019 and 2024, "the hardest part is ahead of us", the minister told AFP. AFP.

By 2050, the government hopes to reduce the State's greenhouse gas emissions to 2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, compared to 10 million tonnes annually at present, according to the estimate of the Ministry of public service.

Residual emissions will have to be counterbalanced by carbon offset projects, so as to achieve the French and European objective of carbon neutrality in 2050.

To meet this challenge, "we will have to broaden the scope of action, not only focus on the subjects of energy sobriety but also understand the issues of travel, public procurement, eco-responsible digital technology, food..." listed Mr. Guerini.

The State also intends to produce part of the carbon-free energy it consumes. The minister inaugurated Friday, on the roof of the departmental direction of the territories (DDT) of Vienne, the first photovoltaic park of a series of 300 parks intended to supply public buildings by 2025.

Since the connection to the DDT network in December 2022, "we have commissioned a second installation, a CNRS building in Bron" near Lyon, affirms Cécilia Reilhan, the person in charge of the deployment of the 300 State parks (budgeted around 50 million euros excluding taxes).

“We are working on many other projects: the administrative city of Limoges, the gendarmerie school in Tulle, an Inrae building in Bordeaux …”, she continues.

Forty-five photovoltaic power plants on the ground must also be built, according to Cécilia Reilhan.

The goal is not self-sufficiency: the park inaugurated in Poitiers provides less than half of the energy consumption (43%) of the DDT building.

And the 300 photovoltaic energy projects intended for on-site consumption will not be enough to green the consumption of the entire state building stock, which has a total of 190.000 buildings.

This production of renewable energy does not, however, amount to "a right to consume" for the agents who benefit from it, warns Ms. Reilhan, pointing out the risk of a "rebound effect" in consumption.

The State still has a considerable effort to make in terms of carbon offsetting, the subject being quite new for the administration. On the sole aspect of energy savings, the government claims to have already achieved the objective of reducing consumption by 10%.

According to figures from the Ministry of Public Service, based on a sample of 10.000 public buildings which represent three quarters of the state's energy consumption, this has fallen by 10% over one year, more for gas. (-12%) than for electricity (-8%).

The figures relate to the period from November 2022 to January 2023, which the ministry compared to the same period in 2021-2022.