The 'environmental turn' of farmland financialization

The “Sens écologique(s)” seminar meets one Wednesday a month from 4 to 6 pm, both online and at Sciences Po, 1, place Saint-Thomas 75 007 Paris (metro rue du Bac (12) or Saint-Germain-des-Prés (4)).

The seminar is open to all, and all you need to do to attend is register by e-mail, by writing to the session moderators.

Form to fill in: https://forms.gle/dxiDy8VeWdC4LvRUA.

Wednesday, December 18, 2024. Lise Cornilleau (UVSQ). 
“As stable as gold, with returns... and carbon. The 'environmental turn' of farmland financialization”.

While the rise of financial investment in farmland has been well studied in the United States, this is less the case in the European Union. Based on a survey carried out in France and an exploratory study on a European scale, my presentation aims to characterize the transformation of investment dynamics in agricultural land in these areas. In particular, I will develop the idea of an “ecological” turn in the financialization of land, marked by the valorization of the environmental uses of land (carbon storage, biodiversity reserves, etc.). I will describe the metrological and legal mechanisms that make this evolution possible, and I will symmetrically present the resistance to the growing articulation of the land market and the ecological compensation market.