With its greenhouse gas emissions, the unbridled combustion of fossil fuels is inducing global climate warming whose consequences are likely to be fearsome.
It is still possible to preserve our planet's climate and thus the future of generations to come, by relying on a carbon-free energy mix; by ensuring overall energy savings; by promoting high environmental quality; and by accepting the combustion of fossil fuel reserves only under the absolute condition that the CO2 produced is securely captured and stored.
Faced with the total disruption of our energy habits that this implies, the answers are currently largely to optimize if not to discover. Energy and the environment are highly sensitive and complex fields, where scientific data and facts are often misunderstood or even misrepresented, and even vanish in the wake of lobbying or of irrational fears and passions. By dint of wanting to be "green", are we really doing, within a given budget, what is best for the environment?
Sauvons le climat (SLC) humbly seeks to make a neutral, scientific, Cartesian contribution to the debate, separating myth from reality. SLC includes a number of high-profile individuals and experts, several of whom have won Nobel Prizes. These experts' contributions are totally voluntary and independent. Each field covered is addressed by experienced specialists. SLC stands outside any political party.
For SLC, the idea is to exchange thoughts, to analyze, to remind the scientific and technical facts that cannot be ignored, and to point to the most appropriate and effective ways of limiting carbon emissions in the very short-term. The cost of reducing carbon emissions varies considerably from one solution to another. Choosing the right options is essential.
France enjoys a peculiar status. Its electricity is virtually carbon-free, thanks to hydroelectric and nuclear power. This is the result of coherent past choices. France has been a forerunner in many fields. It has no oil, but it has ideas, we used to say. It can regain its pioneering role in the future, by diverting to R&D a large part of the rapidly growing subsidies allocated to solutions that are rather ineffective in terms of reducing carbon emissions.
This domestic R&D must involve our leading service companies (EDF, SUEZ, Véolia), construction companies (St Gobain, Lafarge), energy companies (Areva, Alstom) and transport companies, as well as strengthen neglected sectors (energy or heat storage, insulation, hybrid cars, hybrid roofs, PV, etc.), and make innovative contributions in developing countries. In this way, we will effectively fight CO2 emissions while creating many jobs in France, rather than subsidizing imports, as is currently the case.
This is why we believe it is urgent to create a powerful public opinion movement that expresses, beyond ideological positions, the reality of the facts and the consequences we must derive from them.
If you would like to support this action or contribute to the energy debate, please sign the "Sauvons le Climat" manifesto and join us; become a member.
