Our action for the environement

The Institute for Environmental Transformations, created as part of the TIERED project, oversees all of Sciences Po's activities in this area. Its main goals are to

• expand the existing range of courses to train all students, whatever their specialisation, in these issues and in decision-making, and to become Europe's benchmark university for research in the humanities and social sciences.
• Contribute to a new policy of disseminating and promoting knowledge.
• Speed up the process of building bridges with other sciences.
• Promote Sciences Po's unique positioning by giving visibility and coherence to existing initiatives and programmes, both in France and internationally.
• Create an effect of scale to multiply and perpetuate these actions and their impact.

The Institute for Environmental Transformations is developing the following activities through its partnerships in France and abroad:

• structuring research actions with partners ;
• teaching, double degrees ;
• recruitment of research professors and post-doctoral students, hosting visiting professors;
• disseminating and promoting knowledge in the community;
• inclusion in major networks (Alliance U7+, GAUC) to give visibility to the actions set in motion by research and teaching institutions to support the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Find out more about the Institute for Environmental Transformations.

NET-ZERO TRAJECTORY

Sciences Po is committed to an ambitious net-zero trajectory involving the following direct and indirect greenhouse gas emission reduction targets: 

• -90% by 2050 compared to 2019, to reach net zero
• -60% by 2035 compared to 2019, to achieve carbon neutrality

Our interim reduction targets are -30% in 2027 and -46% in 2030 compared to 2019, for scopes 1, 2 and 3.

In addition to these reduction targets, Sciences Po will finance carbon contribution projects aimed at sequestering residual greenhouse gas emissions from scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2035 at the latest. Emissions linked to the travel of executive committee members will be offset from 2024, via a contribution to the reforestation of the Bois du Boscq in the Landes region, a project with the 'Low Carbon Label' and driven by the operator Stock CO2. 

Sciences Po's net-zero trajectory is illustrated by the graph below:

2024-2027 ACTION PLAN

In 2024, Sciences Po adopts a 2024-2027 ecological transition action plan structured around ten strategic areas: 

1. Energy
2. Travel
3. Digital
4. Purchases
5. Catering
6. Waste
7. Biodiversity and water resources
8. Awareness-raising and training
9. Exemplarity
10. Governance

The first 5 areas of this action plan will contribute directly to our net-zero trajectory. The next 5, while not having a significant carbon impact, are nonetheless major areas of work in the context of an ambitious ecological transition.

Given their carbon impact, the "energy" and "travel" areas are priorities. With regard to energy, the main challenges will be to sustain the good practices introduced by the energy saving plan launched in 2022 and to initiate renovation work based on the monitoring of energy consumptions and the recommendations of the energy audits. 

To measure and gradually reduce the carbon impact of business travel, Sciences Po is launching a test phase of the carbon quota mechanism in January 2024. 

Download the full action plan.

Methodology 

Our climate strategy is based on the net-zero standard method of the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), which defines emission reduction targets that are consistent with scientific recommendations (in line with the Paris agreements).

All Sciences Po communities have been involved in building our net-zero trajectory and the associated action plan, in particular students through the Ecological Transition Student Advisory Committee, research centres involved in the test phase of the carbon quota mechanism, and employees through the Ecological Transition Correspondents network. Numerous working sessions have been organised with the departments particularly concerned by the challenges of the action plan (Real Estate Department, General Services and Resources Department, Legal Affairs Purchasing and Procurement Department, etc.). Members of the permanent faculty were also consulted.

The actions proposed in the 2024-2027 action plan are also based on the results of Sciences Po's first 2020-2023 ecological transition action plan. Out of 45 commitments, 30 have been achieved, 12 partially achieved and 4 have not been achieved. The detailed report can be found at this link. It should be noted that as the action plan was drawn up before the Carbon Footprint, the objectives were prioritised at a later date. Overall, the targets for the areas with the highest emissions were achieved (energy, travel, digital and purchases).