Environmental Transformations

Meet the new Chairholder of Sciences Po's European Chair for Sustainable Development and Climate Transition

Two Sciences Po students relate their experience as ambassadors of the “Climate x” pilot.

Since the Paris-based COP21 summit in 2015, whose advances met with (near-)unanimous praise, ensuing COP summits have generated a great deal of disappointment and criticism. But the COP summits are not just about the commitments, seldom honored, made by the States. Such is the view taken by the broad-based Sciences Po delegation that took part in COP26. For the article which follows, we sat down with Arnault Barichella, Phd candidate at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Ellen Ledger, master's student at the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA), and Carola Kloeck, researcher at the Center for International Studies (CERI) specializing in global warming adaptation policies.

Launched in November 2020 and hosted by the School of Public Affairs and the Paris School of International Affairs, the European Chair for Sustainable Development and Climate Transition at Sciences Po has initiated several exciting efforts under the leadership of the Chairholder Prof. Shiv Someshwar.

On 25 November 2020, Sciences Po launched the European Chair for Sustainable Development and Climate Transition. It is the first chair to be co-hosted by our two largest graduate schools: the School of Public Affairs, led by Dean Yann Algan, and the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA), led by Dean Enrico Letta. This Chair would not be possible without the support of its three sponsors: Hermès, HSBC and the European Investment Bank.

The coronavirus is dominating the news. Media worldwide have little space to spare for news unrelated to the current pandemic. Few have probably heard of the category 5 Tropical Cyclone Harold that hit Vanuatu on 6 April and brought widespread damage—only five years after the country suffered from Tropical Cyclone Pam, the strongest cyclone on record.

Aliénor Parmentier graduated from PSIA in 2017. The very next day, she created her own consulting agency for innovative, collaborative and sustainable projects. She participated in the creation of a zero waste café in Lorient, Code Ø, and is the head of communications and zero waste workshops there.

A committed ecologist and graduate of Sciences Po in 2015, Tiphaine Guerout has channeled her entrepreneurial ambition towards an environmental cause. She is the founder of Koovee, a startup that offers an alternative to disposable plastic cutlery: forks and spoons made of biscuit, made in France, that have the particularity of being sufficiently resistant so that one can eat with them. Interview with a young graduate who hopes to flood the French and European markets in the years to come.

Precise, passionate, and deliberately iconoclastic, the climate specialist and engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici delivered the 2019 inaugural lecture to second-year undergraduate students in Paris, demonstrating the inevitable end of the golden age of energy. In this matter, no compromise is possible: if we are to decarbonise the economy, we must let go of our obsession with perpetual economic growth. Here are the key takeaways from his lecture. #KeepLearning

Article by Sébastien Treyer, Executive Director of the IDDRI Think Tank (Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations).

"One of a kind and indispensable": these are the terms FNSP President Olivier Duhamel used to welcome Bruno Latour to the podium of the Boutmy amphitheatre in September 2019, at the start of the 2019-2020 academic year. Latour, the celebrated philosopher and anthropologist, proceeded to deliver a powerful lecture on the urgency of the environmental crisis. How can we measure the change our planet is undergoing, and how can we respond to it? Here is a recap of a key moment of this past year's back-to-school season centred around climate and ecology. #KeepLearning.

In the face of a climate in crisis and a planet experiencing profound ecological disruption, Sciences Po has set itself an ambitious three-year action plan. This plan will form one part of the much wider Climate Action: Make It Work initiative, launched in 2015. It responds to the institution’s obligations as both a place of study and work and a centre for teaching and learning, in Paris and across the six regional campuses.

Eco-friendly, self-managed, and militant, PAVéS is an association committed to tackling questions on climate change at Sciences Po. But it is also well known by students for CAFéS, its ethical and solidarity-focused cafeteria run by students from the Paris campus. We met to talk with two of its members, Ilytie Piroit and Clémentine Sainclair, over an organic coffee. 

On 22 January 2020, the School of Management and Innovation held the final session of its core course, The Great Transition, during which 12 finalist groups presented their projects in front of a jury.

Involved in the association Sciences Po Environnement (FR) since her first year at Sciences Po, Carole Meffre is the coordinator of the Paris campus chapter today, and a master’s student at the School of Public Affairs. She discusses the vision and the challenges of this flagship fixture of campus life which is celebrating its 12th year in 2020.

For the fifth edition of the Paris School of International Affairs’ Youth & Leaders Summit, held on 20 January 2020, distinguished guest speakers and students explored how our societies and communities may continue to prosper while facing important transformations due to climate change. 

Why are small islands more vulnerable to the global and major ordeal of climate change? How do they face this huge challenge and what can we learn from their experience? These are among the crucial questions examined by Carola Klöck and Michael Fink in their recently coedited volume entitled Dealing with Climate Change on Small Islands: Toward Effective and Sustainable Adaptation, published by Universitätsverlag Göttingen. This interview was originally published on the CERI website.

Mas Mahmud and Leen Youssef, former refugees and alumni of Sciences Po, transformed their experiences into a mission to help displaced persons while taking action to counter climate change. Interview.

At the start of the 2020-2021 academic year, Sciences Po will be offering a new interdisciplinary dual bachelor’s degree, the “BASc”, or the Bachelor of Arts and Sciences, combining the study of hard science with the social sciences and humanities. In partnership with multiple French universities, this dual degree is the first of its kind in France. Taught over four years, the aim of these programmes is to build the tools to analyse and act upon global challenges of the 21st century. Two of the programmes within the BASc focus particularly on the ecological transition.

The holiday season is approaching and with it, a wave of overconsumption and, unfortunately, a lot of waste. As online shopping becomes easier and in-store prices drop to compete with websites, the vast amount of packaging and plastic waste that is generated each year increases, peaking during the period from Black Friday to Christmas. As of 2017, France generated the third-highest amount of packaging waste in Europe (FR), with an average of 173 kgs per person.