This April 26, WattElse participated in a meeting co-organized by the Union Wallonne des Entreprises and Fediex (Federation of Extractive Industry).
Beyond the exceptional setting of the Airbois domain perched above the Carrières d’Yvoir, this meeting was an opportunity to learn about the current challenges facing companies through positions and points of view of politicians and federal list heads with Pierre-Yves Dermagne for the PS, David Clarinval for the MR, Georges Gilkinet for Ecolo and Europeans with Yvan Verougstraete for Les Engagés.
There is no longer any doubt that we have indeed entered the political campaign and the traditional themes were logically addressed.
In particular, we retain from this conference the FOUR ESSENTIAL LEVERS of the UWE to succeed in this change and to redeploy the Walloon economy and its industry:
- Mobilization of our talents
- Investing in the capacity of companies to make the transition
- Increasing the local industrial impact of research and innovation
- Making public action the primary partner in the transition
WattElse being a player in the energy transition, it is logically the matter of energy and the environment that caught our attention.
As explained during the debate, Wallonia has adopted a strong climate policy but is struggling to provide the means to achieve its ambitions. Walloon companies are indeed facing major obstacles on the road to transition: changing energy policies, lack of a clear roadmap, increase in the NIMBY phenomenon, etc.
It is particularly interesting to make the link between the problems encountered for the exploitation and development of quarry activities and that of the development of renewable production tools such as wind power, photovoltaics and biomass. These obstacles slow down both the Walloon race against climate change but also the development of our businesses.
It is essential to deploy a real transition policy based on a clear vision, a supporting legal framework, a political roadmap, and an investment plan, but also to guarantee legible and dematerialized permits within a controlled time frame. Climatic, technological, geopolitical and institutional challenges are sources of industrial opportunities and innovation for Wallonia.
At WattElse, we ask that politicians, whatever their colour, take stock of the urgency and opportunities linked to the energy transition and firmly commit to an adequate deployment of a coherent energy mix that takes into account of the essential interest of mature and cheaper renewable technologies.