The Comb Lab letter : 2024: an activity report, and after ?

As the year becomes as short as the length of daylight at the approach of the winter solstice, we are delighted to look back at the highlights we have shared with our partners and all the people who, individually or in their official capacity, combine their energies with ours.

The highlight at the start of the year was the inauguration of the Mallette des Combrailles. The large and stimulating turnout at this inauguration gave substance – an unexpected oxymoron! – to our digital information platform, developed with our friends at the Greffe and produced thanks to the technical and human skills of Agence Louise. It was also an opportunity to measure the power, both symbolic and concrete, of the initiatives of a local authority, in this case the Departmental Council, giving civil society the means to give practical expression to the vast diversity of actions inspired by the inevitable ecological and environmental transition.

It should be noted that this impetus from the Departmental Council is also evident in the Fabrique départementale des transitions, where local elected representatives and socio-economic players form a dynamic group, with the concrete projects of the participating localities proving to be complementary to each other.

The first half of the year ended with a presentation of the Comb Lab ‘initiative’, followed by a rigorous debate that examined the epistemology of Comb Lab as an association dedicated to the proactive resilience of the Combrailles region. This session was part of the 2024 Open Lab calendar of the Institut Clermont Recherche Management. Comb Lab would like to take this opportunity to express its gratitude to the panel of researchers and personalities, themselves involved in transition processes, who enriched our own view of the association’s progress and brought to light avenues for development.

Satisfaction was also expressed in Comb Lab’s participation in the work of the Programme alimentaire territorial des Combrailles and in the roll-out of social food security throughout the department, with Soli’Doume and Cisca providing the necessary impetus.

Our participation in the Festival Fabriquons notre futur (Let’s Build Our Future) organised by the Combrailles durables cooperative, the Festival des possibles (Festival of Possibilities) organised by the Combrailles Sioule et Morge comcom, and our involvement in the creation of the Biollet educational garden alongside schoolchildren, all confirm our commitment to the local community. Finally, the year ended with us leading a film-debate to coincide with the Alimenterre festival.

Let’s face it: yes, we can take satisfaction from this balance sheet. Because, here as elsewhere, life is not all smooth sailing, and we have had to face up to a number of circumstances that have compromised the delivery of our activities. But once the balance sheet has been drawn up, the prospect of the next financial year begs the question: will our approach remain consistent with the changing general context and the constant emergence of new challenges?

However, the many initiatives being carried out all over the world intersect and are mutually enriching, but are coming up against a worrying threefold illiteracy that our letters regularly denounce.

1. Illiteracy on the part of national and European economic and political leaders, who remain impervious to the contributions of life sciences and social sciences to climate change, biodiversity loss and the dissonance between environmental justice and social justice. Value chains in industry and the food supply chain require inventiveness rather than successive renunciations of the transitional programmes that have been voted through.
2. The illiteracy of European governments in the face of the meteoric emergence of digital technology across the Atlantic, coupled with an apathy for its epistemology. Blissful admiration that reduces our public bodies to easy prey for cynical cyber-predators.
3. The geostrategic illiteracy of European leaders which, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, has demoted the European Union on the international stage. A situation highlighted by the recent Letta¹ and Draghi² reports.

Fortunately, there are encouraging signs that the pragmatism of local populations and elected representatives is gradually leading to the right decisions being taken. Necessity being the law, the truth on the ground dissolves prejudices and generates the energy to move effectively from the methods of the 20th century to those of the 21st. This pragmatism is fuelling the energy with which Comb Lab, its network of partners and local authorities are already building for 2025.

Because, whether we like it or not, contradictory meteorological events – desertification through repetitive droughts and devastating rains – and the loss of biodiversity now spare no geographical area. These two phenomena together threaten the very existence of the food chain.

There are two points to be made here. Firstly, we maintain that the postponement of the European Green Pact, the meanderings of EU leaders and international instability must strengthen the winning spirit of local elected representatives and civil society, so that together they can amplify the transitions they are leading.

Secondly, we note that the chaotic world order is diverting our attention from the only priority that matters, i.e. climate change and the loss of biodiversity. As a result, we need to keep a close eye on the future, disseminate information, carry out collective analysis and anticipate future developments. This is why, in addition to continuing our current programmes, Comb Lab will be working with partners in 2025 to establish a proactive and iterative resilience process based on these four elements, in synergy with local elected representatives. This process will include all those who feel concerned by the challenges of the next ten to fifteen years.

The world is changing, and thinking must change to keep pace with the world as it seems.

1 https://www.vie-publique.fr/en-bref/293901-marche-unique-europeen-les-preconisations-du-rapport-letta

2 https://sgae.gouv.fr/sites/SGAE/accueil/a-propos-du-sgae/actualites/mario-draghi-remet-son-rapport-s.html