Serge Orru
Serge Orru est le directeur général du WWF France.
Photo : © AFP PHOTO FRANK PERRY
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Serge Orru est le directeur général du WWF France.Photo : © AFP PHOTO FRANK PERRY
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The Grenelle is better than nothing !
19/05/2010 10:08 am
Here we are in Spring 2010, at the end of a Grenelle which started in Spring 3 years ago.It was exactly on the March 31, 2007, at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, that the Grenelle was born during a colourful meeting between nine environmental NGOs* and Nicolas Sarkozy who was then a presidential candidate.
He was furious about the poor rating the “Alliance pour la Planète”** (a French group of environmental associations) had given him two days earlier. Indeed, this coalition of associations were awarding each of the candidates marks for their environmental programme.
After a memorable fracas***, our exchange with Mr Sarkozy became interesting even though we obviously had different points of view.
.
At the end of the meeting, Nicolas Sarkozy pointed his finger and solemnly announced that he would set a “Grenelle* de l’écologie” in motion if, he was elected! He was thus taking up our idea with political opportunism as skilfully advised by his future Secretaries of State - Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet and Chantal Jouanno - so as not to lose any ground on environmental issues in the electoral debate. The concept of the Grenelle which was recommended and suggested to all the candidates by “Écologie Sans Frontière” (an organization which is part of the “Alliance pour la Planète”), was then called the “Grenelle de l’Écologie”.
Allow me a moment of political-fiction…
Yes, I would have liked this process to be set in motion by François Mitterrand during his presidency, then taken up again by Jacques Chirac and followed up by the Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin.
Then, President Sarkozy would have been able to carry out the fourth “Grenelle de L’Environnement”, thus allowing France to be recognized not only as the homeland of Human Rights but also as the homeland of Planet Rights.
We would now live and produce in a circular economy and we would live soberly without destroying. We would create effective solutions to face the challenges of globalization in another way.
We would export our green expertise and our green professions. Our innovative technologies and passive buildings would be held up as examples. Our products would be eco-conceived according to the philosophy of the light economy, so dear to Thierry Kazazian****, the thinker who developed it.
We would be in a better position to face the full brunt of the systemic crises we are currently enduring. Let us now return to reality after this imaginary scenario. The President, who was elected in May 2007, summoned the environmental associations without any delay on the morning of Monday May 21, at the Élysée Palace. President Sarkozy officially launched the “Grenelle de l’Environnement” with Alain Juppé who was the Minister of State for Ecology and Sustainable Development at the time.
Then Jean-Louis Borloo took over from the Mayor of Bordeaux in negotiations taking place between a pentagon made up of the State, territorial collectivities, employers’ associations, trade unions and NGOs.
We NGOs must sincerely admit that we were not prepared, at that moment, for negotiations at such a level. We all had to work a lot within tight deadlines, sometimes, with each other and at other times, against each other!
It was our duty to take the opportunity to start making environmental changes to our society and usher it towards humanly sustainable development.
We imagined France as a country that would simultaneously respect future generations by metamorphosing its economy, its agriculture, its industry, its energy, its waste management, its public transport, its railway and maritime freight and its governance by widening our perception of development which has become protective of the complexity of natural systems.
We didn’t want to be “green nuisances”, far from it. We wanted to carry forth the voices, the dreams and the ambitions of those who fought the environmental fight long before us.
We wanted to be able to create an irreversible momentum from this environmental catch-up vis-à-vis Northern Europe and develop the beginning of green prosperity which supports the living. We were dreaming and we were right! We managed to get organized enthusiastically and creatively while ideas were clashing.
We’ve learnt! We’ve grown! By applying pluridisciplinarity with humility as well as learning to listen to a different Other.
One didn’t have to be a mind-reader to know that we would not get all the things we initially asked for. In spite of the risks of appropriation and negative comments from those who criticised us for negotiating with the authorities, we bitterly defended all our proposals with conviction. Sometimes we succeeded, at other times, not…
We got the job done !
However, there are many people hostile to our ideas and our arguments and their denial is slowing down the establishment of policies we aspire to. A policy, which we hope will inescapably impose a much better ecological and social footprint with accurate economic indicators. It is up to citizens to yearn for it, want it and decide to back it!
Because we are merely awakeners. We put out proposals and alerts. And today more than ever, as captains of hope, we have to keep fighting democratically for our unsatisfied demands to be met.
We have so much to do in the face of the dangerous climate and our society’s dictates of waste. It is urgent that we stop massively wearing down our environment, both near and far, through our means of production and consumption which are leading us to the graveyard of the Elements.
We have embarked on this national and planetary fight whose outcome is very uncertain… We no longer have to fight for things that have already been ratified! The Grenelle might not be enough but at least we have that under our belt!
Though we might have managed to be heard for the past three years, to more or less “grenellise” minds, we have to keep investigating, suggesting alternatives, convincing and opposing those who defend a wasteful system that is so cruel to biodiversity. Help us! We need your constant civic pressure on the decision-makers. Join us!
Lets all imagine new ways of living that are fair to nature and human beings, from the North to the South. We have to be ahead of the lobbies with our militant force of experts and our responsible proposals. Because we must progress, so as not to leave the playing field wide open for “professional influencers” funded by interests that often prey on the future of generations to come and on our biodiversity.
Of course, those who believe in fairy tales or only in radicalism will be unhappy about the results achieved in this Grenelle, that are alas pared by a majority of people who are too shy when it comes to environmental matters.
Because even if they voted in favour of this important text on the May 11, 2010, they couldn’t help passing amendments that are strongly against the Grenelle’s spirit. A spirit of collective intelligence and shared reflection that French society must imperatively rediscover. As for the more or less productivist opposition that is left, it must really evolve as regards the 21st century emancipation issue. Let us show that environmental issues can exist alongside social issues and favour employment that cannot be delocalised.
Lastly, we must be honest enough to admit that if we had announced all we have been able to accomplish today at the beginning of the Grenelle, we would have been hit by a huge wave of sarcasm… We should be neither embarrassed, nor should we swoon over this unusual process that can undeniably remain a dead letter without decrees of application and concrete funding.
Let us be worthy of our duty as citizens, as insular passengers of a crystal ball rolling around in the infinity of the universe.
“Albert CAMUS told us that “…it is down to man change the place of things: you have to choose to do that or do nothing”.
Friends, it is now time to take action!
REFERENCE
*open multi-party debate in France that brings together representatives local government and national organizations
Un Grenelle 2, c’est déjà ça !
Serge Orru, Directeur Général du WWF-France
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