The Comb Lab Letter : From campism to compromise
Shamefully, and without consulting intermediary bodies, the European Commission and the French authorities are postponing – not to say abandoning – the Green Deal for Europe and the application of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. Of course, the imperialist pretensions of China and the United States, as well as the Russian threat, are having a massive and lasting impact on the policies of European states. However, these setbacks do not conceal the relief of leaders who unhesitatingly advocate the removal of standards and directives protecting the environment and workers in distant countries. Indeed, faced with economic discomfort, the response of the weakest seems to know no alternative but to liberalise its economy.
These culpable steps backwards mean that decision-makers have a responsibility in the face of the climate imperative. The risk then arises of reinforcing hard-line resistance postures, increasing invective and violence within society at a time when the urgent need is to bring all forces together to establish a « society beyond climate change ». Sweet utopia? So be it. But the reality of the situation goes beyond political and economic positions. On 24 May, the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais were placed on « drought watch »1 due to a severe shortage of rain and persistent dry winds. On 29 May, the Swiss village of Blatten was submerged by the melting and subsequent slippage of the glacier that dominates it, with the municipalities located downstream still under threat of further episodes.2
The European and national decisions not to implement measures to mitigate global warming are further evidence of the difficulty human communities have in believing what they know. Illustration dated 17 May 2025:3
« A scorching summer lies ahead, according to current modelling by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and the US Climate Forecast System (CFS). June, July and August are likely to be warmer and drier than average.
Anomalies in the movement of heat lead to its accumulation, which has repercussions on the atmosphere. In line with ECMWF forecasts, researchers are therefore expecting a scorching summer this year. The study also revealed that heat accumulation is « a reliable indicator of future heatwave summers ».
In the spring of 2025, a weather phenomenon appeared unusually early, writes the Frankfurter Rundschau, referring to meteorologist Dominik Jung. A so-called « omega » anticyclone blocks weather systems and leads to stable, dry and hot weather. This phenomenon could also intensify heat waves ».
In view of the harsh reality of global warming, all the impasses in political economy and the ideological tightening that accompanies or fights them, we postulate the need for the practice of compromise. Often confused with a sell-out, compromise refers to a process of consultation in which each party is aware of the constraints and conflicting interests that mobilise the players concerned by a common problem; in this case, the resilience of a more or less vast area.
Some situations are easy to resolve. For others, on the other hand, the search for compromise can be daunting and consensus really hard to reach. In all cases, everyone goes part of the way to achieve a balance that may be unsatisfactory but is necessary. Think, for example, of the issue of the artificialisation or non-artificialisation of land in rural areas: how can we reconcile the need to build to house people and accommodate their activities with the maintenance of a fruitful agricultural sector and the exploitation of forests to supply the timber industry?
Convinced of the superiority of compromise over rigid and binary positions, i.e. with no concessions on either side of economic liberalism or ecological requirements, we are running « serious games » sessions, using the GAMAE platform developed by INRAE Clermont Ferrand and UMR Territoires, as well as the Clermont Auvergne Centre for Social Innovation.4
Regardless of the convictions of the participants, these serious games encourage the practice of consultation. Participants can see the impact of each type of activity, the socio-cultural interests, the employment opportunities and all the other dynamics that make up the vitality of a locality. These game situations enable everyone to discover the compromises – formal, informal and underlying – already at work in a given area. These games shed light on the evolution of the compromises and, beyond the sprinkling of participative activities, lead to the proposal of concrete actions and the implementation of these actions.
At a time of heightened tensions due to large-scale geo-economic panic, our aim is to move away from the sterile dualism of irreconcilable ideologies towards the practice of consultation and compromise as a means of pacifying conflicts of interest.
We are therefore inviting citizens, elected representatives and other stakeholders to the serious games sessions on 5 July, 9 August and 13 September. Focusing on consultation and compromise in the local agricultural area, these three-hour sessions will enable everyone to discover the unnoticed dynamics of local life and decide which partnerships to mobilise to take concrete action.
Practical information and registration
We wish you all a good summer and look forward to finding you again at your reading station for our September newsletter.
1 https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2025/05/24/le-nord-touche-par-une-secheresse-severe-et-precoce-les-plantes-sont-en-periode-de-croissance-c-est-catastrophique_6608177_3244.html
2 Ensevelissement du village de Blatten en Suisse par fonte d’un glacier.
Le Temps, Genève : «Un avertissement à tous les pays alpins »: à l’étranger, Blatten est devenu le symbole du déclin des glaciers
3 Blick 17 05 2025.
4 https://gamae.fr/plateforme/