INTERVIEW
The UN Panel of Experts on Climate (Giec), meeting until Tuesday in Switzerland, looks at the quality of our soil and our ability to meet our food needs without further degrading nature. Following these meetings, a report on "Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security and Greenhouse Gas Flows in Terrestrial Ecosystems" "should be made public Tuesday, August 6th.
"We have a human activity that has a very strong influence on the quality of the soil: a quarter of the planet's soils today are degraded," notes François Geffrier, on Europe 1, Matthieu Orphelin, MP for Maine-et -Loire and specialist in environmental issues. "This report must show how global warming will accentuate these problems of soil quality.Back, it is the question of biodiversity, agriculture and food that is played," says the elected representative who recalls that 820 million people around the world suffer from malnutrition, a figure that is growing due to droughts.
"We will have to change the agricultural model, go towards a more environmentally friendly model," says Matthieu Orphelin. "The report will show that since the 1960s, fertilizer use has increased ninefold, crop irrigation has increased twice, all of which must be questioned."
"The Prime Minister promised an act 2 of the quinquennium where the ecological transition takes its place"
And France is not left out. "Today in France, we are artificializing the equivalent of 200 hectares per day to build new subdivisions, infrastructure, shopping centers ...", laments this close Nicolas Hulot. "We need actions in all areas." When we think about actions against global warming, we think about the energy renovation of buildings, sustainable mobility, the circular economy, but we must do more on sustainable agriculture. and the artificialization of soils, "he explains.
This report should also make recommendations on food waste, since "almost a third of the food produced in the world goes to the trash".
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Matthieu Orphelin, himself a former member of the presidential majority, calls for greater transversality on these issues, and asks the government to broaden its policy on ecological transition. "The government must strengthen its actions in the coming months.The Prime Minister has promised an act 2 of the five-year period where the ecological transition takes its full place.We will see that in September," he says.