Stations and airports will turn off illuminated pubs at night

Fire extinction. The operators of French train stations, metro stations and airports pledged on Monday, under the aegis of the State, to turn off illuminated advertisements by the end of the year when these places are closed to the public, in order to reduce this source of energy consumption. Energy sobriety obliges, a decree issued in October requires lighting advertising devices to be turned off at night between 1am and 6am. But airports, train stations, metro stations, which can operate outside these time slots, are an exception.

To add their stone to the edifice of “energy sobriety” called for by the government, the operators of these infrastructures (in particular SNCF and Aéroports de Paris) and the advertising agencies (JCDecaux and Médiatransports) signed a ” commitment charter”, on the sidelines of a meeting organized by the Ministries of Energy Transition and Transport to take stock of the sector’s sobriety efforts.

“It starts now”

In this document, consulted by AFP, the signatories undertake to ensure that digital screens and backlit posters can be “switched off or, failing that, put on standby during public closing hours”by January 1, 2024. “Obviously, it starts now, but many screens must be equipped with a standby or shutdown device” which often does not exist, observed the Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune. In short, install switches.

In an appendix to the document, the SNCF undertakes, for example, to reduce the electricity consumption of its fleet of illuminated advertisements by 71% in 2031 compared to 2022, and to reduce the carbon emissions linked to these devices by 45% on the same period.

The National Agency for the Environment and Energy Management (Ademe) noted in 2020 that the 1,400 Parisian digital advertising screens present in the metro and stations consumed “as much electricity in one year as 21 schools with 10 classes”. She added that the annual greenhouse gas emissions of these 1,400 screens represented “as much as the emissions due to the use of the Paris metro by 20 million passengers”.

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From there to ban?

Environmental activists have multiplied actions in recent months to turn off or cover advertising screens, lights, which petitions call for a ban. MP Delphine Batho (Génération Écologie) tabled a bill in the National Assembly prohibiting all forms of digital and illuminated advertising in public spaces.

“We are betting on incitement and trust, rather than coercion,” noted the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Satisfied with the “act I” of the sobriety plan launched last year, she calls for continuing and expanding the efforts undertaken. She says she is preparing measures for this summer, and in particular enforcing the law which provides that we do not use the air conditioning if it is less than 26 ° C. “It’s a cultural issue,” she said.

Agnès Pannier-Runacher wants “everyone to be an actor in reducing energy consumption”. The government intends to encourage the French to drive at 110 km / h and intends to embark on the site of the electrification of heavy goods vehicles, according to the two ministers.

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