According to experts on the field, individual behavioral changes for the average French person would result in a maximum 20% decrease in personal carbon footprint. This would represent a quarter of the global effort needed to achieve the goal of limiting the average global temperature increase to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
In total, commitment of individuals and households to decarbonize their lifestyles, which is certainly unavoidable, is nonetheless insufficient to achieve the reduction targets and aim for carbon neutrality in France by 2050.
In order to win the battle and the race against time in which we are engaged at the planetary level, it is necessary to transcend individual action and reach a collective level of action, while involving the citizens too.
While the major orientations for the climate (plans, strategies, etc.) are defined at the national level, it is at at the regional and intermunicipal levels that these policies are implemented in order to ensure the coherence of the measures and their implementation in all sectors.
Local authorities are directly responsible for a certain number of local public services that are related to the environment and allow them to contribute to its protection. To meet the challenges of climate change, they are looking for innovative solutions, particularly from start-ups and SMEs, which in turn need to develop rapidly and "scale up".
These solutions, whether they are high-tech, mid-tech or low-tech, are also in the field of social innovation and sobriety of uses while allowing the development of new local jobs and the emergence of local activities.
Initially inspired by TED's OUNTDOWN . program to detect and promote inspiring ideas ("We can change Climate Change"), the Climate Solutions Business Matching progam works operationally with local authorities and start-ups to enhance the implementation of innovative solutions.
