Is there popular demand for sufficiency?

A letter to Monique Barbut, the French Minister for the Ecological Transition  

In 1995, social scientist Joseph Huber addressed the issue of the legitimacy of sufficiency and efficiency policies, stating that "It might be true that less is better. But if the vast majority of people at their current stage of development do not believe this, no policy can be based on it, at least not a sensible and non-violent policy". Sufficiency, an often misunderstood concept, is defined "a set of policy measures and daily actions which avoid demand (...) while delivering wellbeing for all within planetary boundaries". As the current French Minister of Ecology and former head of WWF France, you must look at the numbers concerning this key organizing principle of society. They show change in Huber's storyline: studying citizen assemblies from various European countries, Lage et al. found that out of the 860 mitigation policy recommendations they identified, 39% included sufficiency.   

Minister, you have declared 2026 a "year of action and resistance". In 2019 and 2020, 150 randomly selected citizens have already shown you what that action looks like: the  "Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat" spent nine months designing climate policy proposals. These included multiple sufficiency-related measures, like restricting advertising to reduce demand, or lowering the tax on train tickets. Yet, despite President Macron's promise that "what emerges from this Convention, I pledge, will be put forward without any changes", the assembly's conclusions were not implemented for the most part. Of the 149 proposals produced, 53% were rejected, and only 10% were transmitted to Parliament without modification.   

Evidently, citizen assemblies can work, so what makes France a black sheep? The case of Ireland's 2017 assembly on climate change is inspiring: through a long process of deliberation, 99 citizens produced 13 recommendations including ending fossil fuel subsidies and expanding community-owned renewable energy. Their proposals fed into Ireland's Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act, were largely supported by the population, and are now considered one of the world's key democratic participation successes.  

The contrast with France is all the more striking given that evidence compiled by the OECD shows that, globally, three-quarters (76%) of deliberative processes result in the adoption of over half of citizens' recommendations. In one-third (36%) of cases, all recommendations are implemented. As researchers increasingly agree that sufficiency needs to be carried out through bottom-up and community-led approaches, citizen assemblies matter. By enacting deliberative democracy, and direct democracy when combined with referendums, they show that there is popular demand for sufficiency.   

Do you acknowledge the conclusions of the IPCC's 721 scientists on the gravity of the climate crisis? Do you recognize the UN's 2022 resolution stating that a right to a healthy environment is a human right?  Do you concede that our government must reach the goals it set for itself, and uphold its duty to represent citizens? If so, you must infer the urgent need for fast-acting, long-sighted and legitimate environmental policies.   

I urge you to explore the potential of sufficiency, and through it act upon the demands expressed by citizens.