2023-09-26 07:25:00
« In this collective with recognized expertise, not a single member is in favor of the construction of the A69 motorway », between Toulouse and Castres. Here is what the Atécopol collective has just published, on his blog, which brings together 200 local scientists including two members of the IPCC (Christophe Cassou and Jean-Baptiste Sallée). The first went last April to a peaceful march once morest this motorway project, organized near Seix (Tarn).
As the weeks pass and the Atosca company, responsible for carrying out the project, continues its developments, the popular mobilization hostile to this project seems to take on a new dimension. After some have been on hunger strike for several days, not to mention the demonstration in front of the regional council in Toulouse this Monday, September 25 in the evening, it is now the turn of local scientists to come out of the woods with the publication of this text.
« Traveling by car between Toulouse and Castres currently emits three times more CO2 than doing so by TER and 8 times more than doing so by coach. This factor might rise to 25 if the railway line were electrified. While France is struggling to meet its own climate objectives, how can we justify building an infrastructure that will compete with less emitting means of transport? »write the co-authors in particular.
They dispute the economic argument
Furthermore, these scientists with multiple and diverse skills firmly contest the link between highway infrastructure and economic development of the territory in question.
« It appears very clearly that the link between motorway infrastructure and development is not automatic, and can even be negative: motorway infrastructures, by exacerbating competition between territories, above all have the effect of amplifying existing dynamics, the latter depending more territorial projects than infrastructures themselves. In the more specific case of the Toulouse-Castres motorway, the analyzes indicate that there is no isolation of the Castres-Mazamet region, but that the A69 motorway project is above all a support for the economic development of the Toulouse metropolis »estimate the scientists of the collective.
In addition to the time saving, around twenty minutes, the economic growth of this Castres-Mazamet employment area is the primary argument of project leaders and those who are in favor of it, such as the president of the region. Occitanie, Carole Delga, or even the mayor of Castres, Pascal Bugis, or even Christophe Ramond, the president of the Tarn department, to whom the writing on the blog in question is addressed.
Finally, the authors also have a word for the political decision-makers of this A69 motorway project, including the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune and the Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher: “ As scientists, we believe that changing your mind in the face of facts is a valuable intellectual quality and that you will grow by reconsidering your position. », They write, while recalling the example of Notre-Dame-des-Landes.
Invited this Tuesday morning on France Inter, Clément Beaune nevertheless repeated his desire to maintain the Toulouse-Castres motorway project, while announcing the future cessation of other motorway projects.
1695726153
#scientists #mobilize #project
