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on Climate Change (IPCC)’s report published
in June goes even further. According to United HOW ABOUT MONACO?
Nations climate change experts, the Earth could
become uninhabitable even before 2050, with The Principality ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
water shortages, migrations, malnutrition and in 1994 and then the Kyoto Protocol in 2006. In 2008, the government adopted a climate
animal species extinction all on the horizon. energy policy and an action programme, the Climate and Energy Plan, which obtained
Exceeding the 1.5 ° C temperature rise threshold the European Energy Award label. As part of the signing of the Paris Agreement in
(compared to the pre-industrial era) would 2016, Prince Albert II set new reduction targets of 50% and then 55% of GHG by 2030
“ gradually lead to serious and sometimes (compared to 1990) and carbon neutrality by 2050. “These objectives imply a reduction
irreversible consequences. ” However, according rate four times faster than that which has been followed up to now. The policy focused
to the World Meteorological Organisation, the on three priority areas: mobility, waste treatment and energy efficiency of buildings,”
probability that this threshold of 1.5 ° C over explains the government. The Mission for Energy Transition (MTE) was created in 2016
one year will be exceeded by 2025 - that is to to support this approach. It has thus formed a partnership with Efficacity, a French
say tomorrow - is already at 40%. research and development institute for urban energy transition, responsible for offering
innovative solutions to enable energy transition in the regions. “The partnership between
Green revolution the MTE and Efficacity will begin with the Fontvieille district but is intended to continue
In order to avoid large parts of the world over several years, in order to deploy the method in other districts of the Principality,”
becoming inhabitable and that “our houses burn indicates MTE Director, Annabelle Jaeger-Seydoux.
down whilst we look the other way,” as Jacques
Chirac once famously said, humankind has no

choice: CO emissions must be reduced – but like the sun for solar panels, the wind for
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how? All over the world, the green revolution wind farms, the movement of waves for
now involves an energy transition, including the articulated floating chain system and
in Monaco. Prince Albert II fixed a new GHG harnessing the internal heat flows of the
reduction target for the Principality of -55% Earth. People criticise these for their lack of
by 2030 and is counting on the ecological profitability due to climatic unpredictability,
transition in order to attain these ambitious aesthetic defects and, in particular, the
objectives. The transition has taken time to scarcity of the metals needed to make
put into operation because, since the industrial them. According to experts, in a world of
revolution, the world economy has relied on electric cars, the demand for lithium would
fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas. be multiplied by 30 and that for cobalt by 20;
Energy is at the heart of the way our world plus, in order to obtain these metals (indium
economy grows, based on an industrial and for photovoltaic cells, silver for wind turbines,
consumerist model. Transport, supply chains, lithium for batteries etc) we will soon have to
industrial agriculture, heating and internet dig further and deeper - and the more you dig,
systems – two thirds of all growth that took the more energy you spend. The fact is that no
place in the 30 years after the Second World energy is 100%-clean. Nevertheless, renewable
War was achieved by burning fossil fuels and energy is still the least polluting in terms of
every day the world devours more than 95 GHG. Reserves of fossil energy are running
million barrels of black gold, apart from in out and transition towards renewable sources
2020, when the global pandemic accounted is, therefore, inevitable, requiring, in addition,
for a historic drop. Another factor that makes solutions for storing this energy, efficient
the transition to greener energies even more management of energy flow and the recycling
complex is the omnipresence of petroleum in of used materials. However, the world can
the composition and manufacture of some of ill-afford not to rethink its economic model
the most widely-used goods, such as radios, and develop more energy-efficient industries,
shampoo, contact lenses, fabrics, shoes and reduce industrial production and urgently
tennis balls. initiate alternatives to private cars. “We
© Dépositphotos / vectorfusionart Many obstacles and behaviours at all levels: individuals,
need a radical transformation of processes
However, can green energies really completely
communities, businesses, institutions and
governments,” warn the experts at the IPCC.
replace polluting forms of power? Renewable
energies draw on natural power sources
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