Energy crisis, climate change: what upheavals for national and territorial strategies?

At a time when territories can be masters of their energy destiny, AMORCE has called on public authorities to rethink their actions in terms of energy transition with a long-term vision. Getting out of crisis management, emergency plans and price shields is becoming a priority to meet the challenges of our time, as well as those of future generations. It is also essential that local authorities take a stand individually and collectively on France's energy future and the resulting social project.

Sobriety plans to resist in the face of crises to be consolidated

In October 2022, the Government presented the main measures of its energy sobriety plan, applied to all sectors during the last winter in order to reduce energy consumption and limit the risks of power cuts or supply disruptions. gas. In this context, AMORCE had, in parallel with the actions of the Government, set up a working group last summer bringing together more than 200 local authorities to come up with an “Emergency sobriety plan: 10 actions to help local authorities to pass the 'winter and other lines of work', produced with the AMF, Intermunicipalities of France and the support of the Banque des Territoires. Furthermore, the Government has integrated this contribution from AMORCE into its sobriety plan, thus defending the interests of local authorities.

Among the main solutions proposed by AMORCE, let us mention the need for local authorities to establish an overall estimate of the energy consumption of buildings and services in order to target priorities for action. As such, and while reducing the energy footprint of buildings remains a priority issue, AMORCE offers a free, independent and quick-to-use online tool to support local authorities in the energy renovation of their built heritage: eSHERPA

But after the emergency of this winter revealing a certain lack of means for communities to manage all consumption (tools, equipment, human resources adapted to maintenance and behavioral animation), it is now necessary to go beyond the logic short-term and switch to a long-term model. This is why AMORCE continues to participate in the working groups of Act 2 of the energy sobriety plan led by the Government and calls in particular for:

• Measures to increase the human resources of communities dedicated to controlling energy demand;
• Easing in the limitation of operating expenses when they are linked to the implementation of measures in favor of the energy transition;
• Financial aid targeted at operating expenses in addition to those provided for investment expenses;
• Support by the State services in engineering for the smallest communities and distribution of the eSHERPA tool to help them identify the actions to be carried out as a priority on their heritage;
• Additional funding dedicated to energy demand management operations carried out by local authorities in the short and long term: aid for regulation equipment, increase and prioritization of funding for global renovations, etc.;
• Initiate a reflection on the specific debt of local authorities which would be linked to investments in energy efficiency: relax the constraints on debt specifically linked to the control of energy demand and/or secure loans at the national level for communities. It is necessary to take this demand into account in order to help local authorities face the "investment barrier" to be overcome;
• New prerogatives for local authorities to support the energy transition.

In any case, it is necessary to articulate energy sobriety, energy efficiency and the development of local renewable energies.

A lackluster law to accelerate the production of renewable energies

Lagging behind the European objectives, France had the opportunity, through the law on the acceleration of renewable energies, to mark a real commitment to energy transition in all its components in favor of renewable energies in the territories, while avoiding recourse massive to fossil and nuclear energies.

It should be noted the adoption of several technical measures supported by AMORCE (release of land, acceleration of investigation procedures, creation of a guarantee fund for project leaders) and which should promote the development and involvement of local authorities in renewable energy projects (strengthening the participation of local authorities in project companies, as well as in energy communities), or even taking into account, finally, the possibility of regionalized calls for tenders with differentiated tariffs based on several criteria. However, this text remains insufficient to make up for the delay and even less to achieve new ambitions.

Measures that are too complex first of all, because the modification of local planning of renewable energy production, for example, leading to the creation of renewable energy acceleration zones, is not the most suitable for certain municipalities which expect State specific support and sufficient human resources to remove the technical and administrative obstacles allowing the concrete realization of the projects.

Unequal measures then, so much the little place given to renewable and recovered heat is to be deplored. While heat represents 50% of the country's consumption and remains largely carbon-based, not relying on renewable and thermal recovery energies, which have great development potential and are produced locally as close as possible to consumers, seems like a a serious mistake.

This lack of means, places and ambitions granted to the development of renewable energy projects, and particularly renewable and recovered heat, appears completely disproportionate in comparison with the measures favoring the development of nuclear power. AMORCE warns of the fact that the end of dependence on fossil fuels will not only pass through the development of electrical energies, but also and above all through the development of renewable and recovered heat, as close as possible to consumers and to the territorial scale.

To accelerate change in our energy system and rethink long-term strategies, the development of the Multiannual Energy Program (PPE) is the next deadline, and one of the last levers at our disposal, to finally engage the real turning point hoped for by the territories.

For a major energy policy combining economic and environmental sustainability: the future PPE and National Low Carbon Strategy as levers for action!

A few months away from a new Energy and Climate Planning Law (LPEC), which it has been confirmed will be debated starting this summer, which should then guide the drafting of the PPE and the National low-carbon strategy for the next 5 years, it is more than ever time to go beyond the short-termism that has predominated in recent months and to reflect with all the actors concerned on an ambitious policy coordinating ambitious objectives and means (human and financial ) assigned to rise to the challenges.

AMORCE also observes that, in addition to the existing scenarios proposed by the national actors, there is no one that would be carried and defended by the territories, a scenario involving transformations that the communities would commit to carrying out collectively. A different voice avoiding too much centralization of the debates even though the energy transition is necessarily based on a part of decentralization of responsibilities, powers and means.

In this spirit, AMORCE is launching the development of a territorial energy transition scenario with the associations of interested communities and based on the following main guidelines:

• Prioritize a strong reduction in energy consumption in the territories with exemplary communities;
• Prioritize the use of renewable energies and local recovery;
• Promote the shared governance of projects and the mobilization of all local actors.

In this proposal, renewable and recuperated heat and cold must take a prominent place. Too often forgotten in recent years, AMORCE calls for putting them back at the heart of the debate. A massive development of heating and cooling networks and a 100% R&R mix in 2050 is not only possible but essential.

This symposium is the first stone laid for this work and a call to the active forces concerned. It is also a call from the territories to the State, which reaffirms that it is at the heart of the challenges of the country's energy future and expects to be listened to and to be fully in line with this perspective.