Restrained consumption versus technology: match of the day?
Do you think people are generally hostile to frugality? A recent survey showed that the French would prefer to shrink their consumption rather than rely on technology to hit carbon neutrality by 2050.
4 scenarios have been considered by Ademe (France)[1] to ensure that the transition is successful:
- The frugal generation: enforced reduction in consumption, localism, renovation, steep (three-fold) reduction in meat consumption and low technology.
- Regional cooperation: sustainable lifestyles, open governance, cooperation between regions and targeted re-industrialization.
- Green technology: decarbonization technologies, green consumerism, biomass exploitation.
- Restoration challenge: mass consumption, artificial intelligence, CO2 capture and intensive agriculture.
This last scenario would enable us to carry on “as before” by gambling everything on technology. However, it is seen as the least suitable strategy, just like scenario 3. Respondents to the survey are already convinced of the need to change behavior and scale back their consumption. On the other hand, they do not have a cooperative network (scenario 2) to transcend individual behaviors, which have a limited impact. Frugality must go hand-in-hand with a new form of governance.
To go further
“La sobriété, au-delà du progrès technique et des changements de comportement individuels”
by Sarah Thiriot (The Conversation, October 2022).
[1] https://transitions2050.ademe.fr/
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