At a time when the government is preparing to make major decisions for 2025, and in a particularly uncertain political, economic and social context, regional players - whether public or private - must find a way between drastic financial constraints, the need to make major investment choices for the future, and a multiplicity of injunctions, sometimes contradictory and sometimes at odds with their immediate interests.
However, now more than ever, they need to work together to meet the many challenges facing our regions: economic development, improved social well-being, environmental protection and adaptation... These challenges cannot be tackled in isolation, otherwise they will exacerbate an already acute economic, social and environmental crisis. Striking a balance between maximizing the positive effects of transformations and minimizing (or even offsetting) the negative effects on stakeholders is the key to successful "just transformation" of the region.
Several underlying trends are imposing themselves, sometimes brutally, on territories and the public and private players that make them up, such as :
- The upheaval of territorial balances : 80% of citizens now live in urban areas, 55% of medium-sized towns are affected by the desertification of their city centers, and certain essential public services are in decline, such as access to healthcare in "medical deserts";
- Economic change: the globalization of trade has increased dependence on foreign production, while securing supply chains is a major challenge for many small and medium-sized businesses and industrial firms;
- The demographic transition : with 23 million seniors by 2040, the need for adaptation and services will continue to grow, and will have to be financed;
- Climate change: with a potential rise in global temperatures of 5°C by the end of the century, the depletion of energy resources and the collapse of biodiversity, territorial, economic and social disparities will be exacerbated. Entire sectors of our activities and lifestyles will no longer be viable or insurable, due to new and/or increased environmental risks;
- Technological innovations : the acceleration of the innovation cycle continues, in the image of the development of AI, disrupting business models and uses. Yet 20% of the French population is struggling with technological tools and access to digital services.
Each of these trends, taken in isolation, is matched by an arsenal of initiatives, regulations, aids and incentives to guide players in their choices. For example, the France 2030 plan and the Green Industry Act finance ambitious reindustrialization projects, requiring at least 20,000 hectares of land. Visit Climate and Resilience ActFor its part, the French government has set a target of "zero net artificialisation" by 2050 to preserve biodiversity. When it comes to embracing all these challenges, particularly complex equations emerge.
How, for example, can we reindustrialize without artificialising land? Many other examples of apparent contradictions can be mentioned: how to decarbonize industry while preserving its attractiveness and competitiveness? How can we initiate and finance the necessary long-term structural transformations while responding to immediate social emergencies - reconciling "end-of-the-month" and "end-of-the-world" issues? How to drive and encourage innovation via the development of disruptive technologies, while limiting the environmental impact of digital technology?
Faced with these unavoidable difficulties at the level of each player, building a shared vision on a regional scale and implementing cooperation and synergies between players opens the way - better than fragmented initiatives - to the "just transformation" of this region.
Decompartmentalization and alliances are the keys to solving the challenges of transitions: co-investment, strengthening of value chain approaches, circularity, economy of functionality... What these models have in common is a "systemic" approach to transformation, and their success is based on several driving ideas:
- Systematize consideration of stakeholders and the "value chain" approach by working on complementarities between public and private players;
- Evaluate the financial and extra-financial impact of projects, both upstream and downstream by fully integrating the social and environmental dimensions into the assessment of the value created;
- Seek, on a territorial scale, to overcome the contradictions arising at the level of each player (as in the case of circularity: can one company's waste become another's input?) Territorial cooperation" is also one of the scenarios for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 proposed by theADEMEIt is based on the implementation of strengthened territorial governance;
- Systematize citizen involvement in local projects to take account of user expertise and ensure that projects are acceptable in the short, medium and long term.
Beyond the fact that these cooperative approaches will make each player stronger, in the long term they will be a resilience factor for the region as a whole in the face of future crises. Discover our expertise to help you do just that.
