Lyon candidate for the European program of “100 neutral climate cities in 2030”
Posted on Dec. 2021 at 8:31
“Since the States do not commit, the solution will come from the cities”, affirms the mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet, noting “the failure of the COP26 in Glasgow”. This is why the ecologist, who declared in the city council in March “the state of emergency”, has already announced a candidate for the European program “One hundred climate-neutral cities in 2030”. Without even knowing the definition or the specifications, which will be published early next year.
“But overall we know the objective: to evolve our urban model towards more sobriety,” he says. “We are already doing a lot, with 400 million euros committed to the environment in 1.2 billion investments. But we want to add more quickly and further ”, the one who presented his ecological report after 500 days of mandate, on November 22, to a panel of associations and companies, in the presence of Stéphane Labranche, member of the IPCC. “This candidacy, which should provide the city with additional resources, aims to engage citizens and economic circles in a great ecological dynamic of which Lyon wants to be the spearhead,” he says.
Compensation
“The project tends towards carbon neutrality but the unknown remains the calculation perimeter”, recognizes Sylvain Godinot, assistant for ecological transition. The consumption of municipal buildings alone has an impact of 3,000 tonnes of CO equivalent2 per year, but which amounts to 150,000 tonnes if we add the effects of school catering, public markets and tourist flows of the Festival of Lights (committed for three years to obtaining the standard of events eco-responsible ISO 20121)
Beyond municipal action, the entire territory (industrial production, travel and transport, energy, etc.) weighs 3 million tonnes of CO equivalent2, or 6 tonnes per inhabitant. But the broadest calculation, including the consumption of imported goods, reaches 5 million tonnes, 10 per capita. “Necessarily ask the question of carbon offsetting,” said the mayor.