The Minister for the Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, announced a decree that prohibits illuminated advertisements, between 1 am and 6 am with the exception of airports and stations, in an effort of sobriety, but whose contours remain vague.
This future decree aims to harmonize the existing rules to turn off illuminated signs, which currently differ depending on the size of the conurbation.
• Measures implemented
The issue of regulating illuminated advertising is not new. A decree of 2012 stipulates that lighting advertising is between 1am and 6am in the morning, save for airports and agglomerations of more than 800,000 inhabitants, or the local publicity regulations, pris à l’initiative des maires, peut se substituer à regulation.
Violators are exposed to a fine of 1500 euros.
According to the spokeswoman for the National Association for the Protection of the Night Sky and the Environment (ANPCEN), Anne-Marie Ducroux, this 2012 decree was not effectively applied until 2018.
In 2021, the Climate and Resilience Act addressed video screens in store windows, allowing local elected officials to define “extinction times” in particular.
• The gaps
For Anne-Marie Ducroux, current texts are confusing and poorly applied. The 2012 decree “is very confusing, it sets very minimal rules, with exceptions, derogations”, she criticizes.
“What we know from the field is that there are no controls” or sanctions, he adds.
More generally, “the information transmitted by the State is very partial or not up-to-date, it is not accessible,” he laments.
• Light pollution in figures
According to the Agency for the Environment and Energy Management (ADEME), a 2 m² digital LCD advertising screen consumes 2,049 kWh/year, that is, the equivalent of the average annual consumption of a home in lighting and electrical appliances (excluding heating).
In 2012, the advertised energy savings were “approximately one terrawatt-hour per year for billboards and more than 200 gigawatt-hours for advertisements, equivalent to the annual heating and hot water electricity consumption of more than 370,000 homes.” Anne says. – Marie Ducroux.
Contacted by AFP, the Ministry of Energy Transition was unable to provide figures.
• More sober?
Agnès Pannier-Runacher promised a decree that “generalizes the prohibition of illuminated signs regardless of the size of the city between 1 and 6 in the morning, with rare exceptions such as train stations and airports.”
For Zelie Victor, energy transition manager at Réseau Action Climat (RAC), which federates several associations, it is necessary “to limit the consumption peak not only between 1 and 6 in the morning, but also in times of stress, especially at noon. and in the afternoon, where there are more energy uses.”
The minister could “for example increase the duration of the extinction from 1 hour to 6 am to 10 pm to 6 am”, adds Anne-Marie Ducroux. “If we want to go in a direction of energy and light sobriety, we get rid of everything that doesn’t work,” she says of the ad.
The Citizen Convention for Climate, wanted by President Emmanuel Macron, was much more ambitious and had proposed to the government “the prohibition of these screens (video advertising) in public space, public transport and at points of sale”, a proposal that had been rejected
Source: BFM TV
