Louise Sallé 06h37, April 04, 2022
The last part of the sixth IPCC report is published this Monday at 11 a.m.
It presents the most relevant technological solutions to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
And for the first time, an entire chapter is devoted to solutions based on lifestyle changes, such as reducing meat or energy consumption.
The IPCC, a UN institution that brings together the greatest specialists in global warming, has produced a report every seven years since the 1990s. Its conclusions are reviewed, corrected and approved by thousands of experts around the world and representatives of each government.
Each of these reports comprises three sections: one on the findings, the other on the impacts of climate change and the third on the solutions.
It is this last part of the sixth report of the IPCC which is published this Monday at 11 am.
It aims to present the most relevant technological solutions to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
Sobriety as a major solution against climate change
But one of the chapters of this section is devoted, for the first time, to behavioral solutions such as reducing energy consumption or meat consumption... And this is a first in the history of the IPCC.
Scientists are thus trying to answer the question: "How can the world do without some of the energy produced today?"
It's a concept that's not new, it's called "sobriety", but this area had never been presented by the IPCC as one of the major solutions for combating global warming.
It is indeed a very sensitive political subject.
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"Sobriety is a reduction in our energy consumption by reviewing our lifestyles and our habits", defines Nicolas Goldberg, energy consultant at Colombus Consulting.
"This term should not be confused with 'efficiency', which is doing the same thing but more efficiently, like living in a well-insulated house to heat better," he continues.
"Sobriety, on the other hand, means limiting your heating to 19 degrees and putting on a sweater".
A politically "explosive" subject
Lowering the heating but also generalizing teleworking, encouraging carpooling, driving more slowly, building smaller and lighter cars to extract fewer raw materials... All these sobriety measures are effective levers for reducing CO2 emissions, but politically unattractive.
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"It's an explosive subject," admits Nicolas Goldberg.
“But it will be necessary, otherwise we will move towards a sobriety suffered, as we have at the moment”, adds the energy consultant.
"Today, many people no longer take their gasoline-powered vehicle for a question of wallet. And it will be in my opinion much more violent if sobriety arises like this, like a constraint, and turns our lives upside down. A democratic debate on the question, certainly difficult to put in place, to reduce energy consumption will be less painless", he concludes.
Despite a slight slowdown in 2020, global greenhouse gas emissions have been rising steadily since the 1850s. The planet is currently on a three-degree warming trajectory by the end of the century.