Paris turns off the lights to save energy

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The Eiffel Tower and other monuments of the French capital join the austerity promoted by the city council as civic groups scour the city to put out company signs

In times of energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, Paris, the city of lights, is taking austerity measures, from turning off the exterior lighting of City Hall, municipal museums and monuments such as the Eiffel Tower earlier, to reducing the Christmas lights on the Champs-Elysées. In order to save 10% on electricity consumption in the French capital, the city council has also ordered to postpone the day when the heating starts up this winter, to lower the water temperature in municipal swimming pools by one degree and to lower the heating in the municipal buildings. The Eiffel Tower also points to sobriety. The lights will now turn off at 11:45 PM, one hour and 15 minutes earlier than usual.

Not only the city council takes action against energy waste, but also groups of citizens such as On the Spot Parkour and Résistance à l’agression publicitaire (RAP), who are trying to make the inhabitants of the French capital aware of energy savings through various actions. While RAP focuses on disconnecting the screens of advertising videos on platforms and corridors of the Paris metro, the “environmental ninjas” of On the Spot Parkour walk the streets of the city to take out the illuminated signs that some traders, less and less , leave it on all night.

Parkour enthusiasts Kevin, Hadj, Dali, Baptiste and Laetitia gathered at 1 a.m. on the corner of rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, one of the most elegant streets in Paris, where the Elysée Palace , the official residence of the President of the Republic, as well as many luxury shops and art galleries. This group of friends, aged between 19 and 30, did not come together to go out, but to turn off the illuminated signs of shops. They are part of the environmental collective Lights off (lights off), present in other French cities. They use climbing and parkour techniques – the sport discipline that dodges all kinds of urban obstacles with acrobatics – to carry out their environmental actions.

“The purpose of this action is to meet friends, play sports, test our limits and if we happen to manage to turn off some lights in Paris, it’s not a big deal,” explains Laetitia, a 25-year-old student physiotherapy, out. . Kevin and his friends jump, climb walls, climb pipes, do stunts, swing and grab like “spidermen” at balconies, bars, doors or wherever they can, with one goal: to take out the illuminated signs of the streets. they find their way through the external switches of shops and banks. These electrical safety switches, located on facades about three meters high, are often used by firefighters to cut off the electricity in the event of a fire.

Since 2018, a government decree against light pollution has forced French traders to turn off the lights on their billboards between one and seven in the morning. “No one is looking through the windows at that time,” explains Kevin Ha, an oceanography student.

Though they notice that more and more lit signs are out, not all merchants are adhering to the regulations, despite the French government’s continued calls to conserve energy, as the members of On the Spot Parkour verify on their nighttime tours. That’s why he continues to patrol the streets of Paris to turn off the lights. “It’s like home. You don’t leave the light on where you’re not. Light and energy don’t grow on trees,” recalls Baptiste, a 19-year-old math, physics and chemistry student at the University of Versailles (UVSQ).

These young Frenchmen have set themselves certain rules when it comes to turning off lights. “We don’t do it if it affects the shop window. We don’t touch public lighting or public utility places like the pharmacy or the police,” explains Kevin, the group’s leader. This parkour enthusiast is aware that removing the lighting from a shop sign won’t change the world, but to him it’s a “symbolic” gesture, a way to get a message across. “A problem of light pollution has become a problem of energy sobriety. We are a generation that grew up seeing the lights. It shouldn’t be a habit. If people understand the message, we can have an impact on our level and this can move things forward,” added Kevin, who hopes their actions will increase awareness of the need to save energy in more and more French people.

The last to join the energy sobriety were the merchants of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The shops on this famous Paris thoroughfare have promised to take off their neon signs earlier than usual. «The Champs-Élysées are a symbol and a showcase for the whole world, those of Paris, those of France. It is our duty to show our collective solidarity and exemplaryness,” said Marc-Antoine Jamet, President of the Champs-Élysées Committee.

In addition, this year the Christmas lights of “the most beautiful avenue in the world” will go out at 11:15 pm, two and a half minutes earlier than usual, except on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. The magic of Christmas on the Champs-Elysées also rhymes with energetic sobriety.

Source: La Verdad

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