Barbara Dalibard (Michelin) : "Nous avons besoin de sobriété !"

Hello, hello, thank you for having me this morning.

Yes, so what we are saying is that indeed, there are technological solutions being implemented and they bring a lot, but to reach 100% of the goal we set for ourselves, a part is missing. So what we are saying is that, given the time we have left, it is fundamental to also have a sober approach, both individual and collective, to achieve the CO2 emission reduction targets we have set. The sober approach, it's not enough to say it to do it. Can we go through something other than the price signal? Is that the only thing that can change behaviors? Yes, so what we think at the Academy is that this sobriety cannot be considered, it must be systemic. That is, we must give all our citizens the means to have the right behaviors. So we can set rules, we can have price effects, we can have incentives. And if I take the example of mobility, which is one of the areas I know best, I would say indeed, for example, we need infrastructure if we want to encourage people to take collective transport, whether it is shared cars, but we need technology behind it to be able to bring people together for carpooling. We need train infrastructure, we need bike lanes. So we need to have a systemic vision and a collective narrative that leads each of us to have the right gestures.

So I think absolutely. Finally, at Michelin, but like in many companies, we have very aggressive decarbonization plans to meet the targets, which are achieved, so they are attainable. But what we ultimately see is that all companies have taken measures to move toward massive electrification, and so the demand for electricity will grow. RTE says by 60% by 2050, very significantly. And all the solutions, for example in mobility, are electrification. You need electricity to make electric batteries and electric cars, you need electricity to produce hydrogen, so the demand for electricity is very high. And for carbon energy today, we have about 14 nuclear plants under construction, if all goes well. Just in the mobility sector, to go fully electric and hydrogen for planes etc., you need 40 to 50 plants, we have 14. So we see that it is not enough. But I like to take this figure: 45 years of nuclear plants means 40,000 hectares of photovoltaic panels and 50,000 wind turbines. So we also need to go full throttle. Then there are technologies that allow greater efficiency, for example in mobility we can implement systems to improve vehicle efficiency, to reduce congestion, which also saves energy. And then there is sobriety, and sobriety is living differently, and it must be equitable. We are very, very firm on that at the Academy. Today, this sobriety effort must be equitably shared.

Yes, but I think the strength can also be to ask ourselves what we really need. So let me take an example: I do my personal carbon footprint very often. I ask myself, do I really need to buy another t-shirt? Do I really need it? That is not the case for everyone. There are people who need to buy a t-shirt. It is not my case, I already have enough. So it is true that we ask ourselves this question today. So actually, we can be sober without necessarily depriving ourselves of pleasure. We can eat meat from time to time, we can travel from time to time. The question is, when traveling, maybe we can stay longer in countries and do it less often. So we can have pleasure in France. There are many things we can do. But the goal is to keep in mind that these measures will also allow us to achieve the objective.