picture alliance / dpa/picture alliance via Getty I 22 June 2023, Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart: A modern controller for heaters, taken in a state building. Photo: Bernd Weißbrod/dpa (Photo by Bernd Weißbrod/picture alliance via Getty Images)
picture alliance / dpa/picture alliance via Getty I
The government is launching a “thermostat plan” to make it easier to heat homes to 19 degrees.
ENERGY – Save the planet and reduce the bill. A year ago, the government launched a plan to reduce energy consumption in France. At the time of taking stock, the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher did not want to set a new quantified objective for this winter but wants to register this sobriety over time to make it ” a habit “.
The government has calculated that gas and electricity consumption decreased by 12% between August 1, 2022 and July 31, 2023 compared to the same period of 2018-2019, before Covid. “My goal is for this decline to become structural at the end of 2024, and for us to go further”said the minister in an interview published this Thursday, October 12 in several regional media. “The important thing is not to have a rebound effect”specifies those around him.
The measures to achieve this are less thunderous than last year; they will be supported by an advertising campaign which will start the week of October 16 on the internet, followed by television and radio spots until February. In the triptych “I lower, I turn off, I shift”will be added the watchword “and I lift my foot”. Here’s the bottom line.
For the State and businesses
If the government has already obtained commitments from the large Cac 40 groups on “ teleworking or reducing fuel consumption when traveling by employees », Agnès Pannier-Runacher intends to extend this mobilization to the 120 largest French companies.
For employee travel, an area in which sobriety proved difficult last winter despite high prices at the pump, two new measures have been announced for cycling. “Employers will be able to cover their employees’ expenses related to the rental of private bicycles. And we are extending the tax reduction until the end of 2027 for companies that make a fleet of company bicycles available to their employees”said the minister.
For offices and stores, a decree is in preparation “to force shops and businesses to only turn on their windows one hour before the start of their activity and turn them off one hour after the end”. The project also aims to lower the light intensity of public lighting, which will be done after consultation with local elected officials.
For individuals
After carpooling aid, for example, in 2022, the government is launching “a thermostat plan”. Objective: to reach 50% of French households actually heating to 19 degrees. Aid should encourage people to equip themselves with programmable thermostats, equipment that costs “between 650 and 11,000 euros per unit”recalls the minister, but which allows consumption to be reduced by 15% and the purchase and installation of which will be assisted by up to 80%.
“I asked DIY brands to make turnkey offers for households”she said, adding in passing that the finance bill, soon to be debated in Parliament, will also provide more substantial aid for the renovation of housing.
The issue of speed in cars is also brought to the fore. If a compulsory reduction in speed to 110 km/h on motorways “ is not on the table », the minister recalled that the instructions are given to civil servants and employees of companies playing the game of energy sobriety.
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2023-10-12 12:09:31
#Bikes #thermostats #lighting.. #governments #measures #energy #sobriety
