This was the message delivered by Estelle Brachlianoff during her speech on Thursday November 24 at Futurapolis Planète. This highly renowned event showcases how innovation can offer solutions to the challenges of the future. This year’s theme was “Economy & climate – the challenge of the century”. It provided Veolia’s CEO with another opportunity to reiterate that we must not despair since solutions do exist.
Delivering tangible ecological solutions
We need to pick up the pace of progress. There are solutions out there that have been tried and tested. They are ready to be deployed throughout the country. The first thing we need to do is replace fossil energy.
Estelle Brachlianoff pointed out that “currently, 25% of Russian gas could be replaced with biogas – a locally sourced, renewable and affordable energy produced from wastewater plants and landfills.” This energy has a legitimate role to play in the energy mix, but the regulatory framework is an obstacle. “As things stand, we need five years to open a biogas plant, as well as a good deal of perseverance to convince three ministers one after another. A one-stop-shop would enable us to move much more quickly.”
Accelerate on all climate-related challenges
Half of the departments in France still have water restrictions in place. In November! We need to make it standard practice to reuse wastewater
Indeed, France is somewhat lagging behind its European neighbors, reusing less than 0.1% of its wastewater, compared with 15% in Spain for example. “Do people in France realize that we clean the streets with drinking water? We have the technology and the experience. We can do much better,” she concluded.
Promoting an ecology that unites
We’re not saying people need to light their homes with candles, but we do need to reconsider the way we see the world, so ecology isn’t seen merely as a restrictive, constraining factor, instead framing it as an attractive alternative with solutions that bring about true quality of life
Estelle explained. Of course, this does require effort. But the world is ready. “According to the ecological transformation survey conducted with Elabe in 25 countries,” she added, “60% of the global population is ready to act, as long as the burden of effort is shared and any action taken is both useful and easy to replicate.”
So, what are we waiting for?
For more information
- Futurapolis Planète is organized by Le Point, from November 24 to 26 in Toulouse, France
