Elisabeth Borne requested, in a circular sent to her ministers on Tuesday, the “exemplarity” of the administrations in terms of energy saving, with a series of measures aimed at “reducing energy consumption and accelerating the output of fossil fuels.”
“The international tensions” generated in particular by the war in Ukraine “as well as the unavailability of part of the French nuclear park impose an unprecedented effort on us in terms of energy sobriety”, explains the prime minister, in charge of energy planning, in this circular, of which AFP obtained a copy.
“These measures are necessary, not only to improve our energy sobriety, but also for the sake of exemplarity and acceptability of the efforts that are required of society as a whole”, underlines the head of government.
Air conditioning, heating, lights…
The government recently announced that it wants to reduce energy consumption in France by 10% within two years compared to 2019.
In this sense, public administrations, ministries, decentralized State services, public operators and establishments open to the public are requested to use the air conditioning only when the interior temperature exceeds 26 degrees Celsius, not to leave electronic devices on standby and to turn off systematically turn on the lights when they are not needed.
The President of the Government also asks the administrations to equip the buildings with thermostats, to activate the heating only when the temperature in the offices is below 19 degrees, to close the access doors of the buildings open to the public when the air conditioning or heating is working.
sustainable mobility
Regarding travel, Ms. Borne also wants to “promote sustainable mobility practices” such as carpooling, shared bicycles and access to electric or very low-emission vehicles.
Lastly, it asks the administrations to propose “ministerial plans for energy sobriety and exemplarity”. Any difficulties in implementing these measures can be reported to the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, and the Minister for Transformation and Public Service, Olivier Dussopt.
Ms. Pannier-Runacher announced future decrees at the JDD on Sunday to force air-conditioned shops to close their doors and reduce light advertising, but the outlines of which, for advertising, remain unclear.
Source: BFM TV
