The French minister of Industry asks polytechnicians to tackle the zero carbon revolution

During a visit to École Polytechnique, Roland Lescure (X87), the French Minister in charge of Industry, asked the students of Ecole Polytechnique to tackle the zero carbon revolution and to face the challenges of global warming and European sovereignty.

"We are at the dawn of, and perhaps already engaged in, a new industrial revolution. Since 1794 [when École Polytechnique was founded], polytechnicians have accompanied all the industrial, economic and social revolutions that the world has faced (...) The new zero carbon industrial revolution will change our ways of producing, trading and consuming. Polytechnicians need to get to work on this," said the minister in his introduction to a debate with École Polytechnique’s students.

"I know that the relationship between the younger generation and industry is sometimes ambivalent," added Roland Lescure.

"I'm here to tout the merits of industry," stressed the minister. "Today, industry, in France, represents 20% of carbon emissions, it is 20% of the problem but it is almost 100% of the solution. If we want to decarbonize France while creating jobs and not just by importing solutions from elsewhere, we must create, accelerate and invest in the zero carbon industry and for that we need people like you, engineers, managers, decision makers."

Engineers who graduate from École Polytechnique are are more likely than those from other engineering schools to go into industry for their first job. According to the latest first job survey of Ecole Polytechnique’s graduates, half of them are heading for the corporate world. Of these, 42% are beginning their careers in the industrial world, while 16% go for consulting, 22% for banking and insurance and 17% for IT, software and digital services. By way of comparison, a quarter of engineers graduating from the Grandes Écoles, taking all fields of study together, joined consulting firms, 22.2% joined IT, software and digital services companies and 7.3% joined the construction and public works sector, according to the Conférence des Grandes Écoles insertion survey.

Prior to the debate with École Polytecnique’s students, the minister visited the campus and was able to appreciate the changes that have accompanied the development of the School over the past twenty years, marked by the development of multi-curricular training, the strengthening of research and the development of its third pillar dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship materialized by its incubator the Drahi X Novation Center.

The Minister also went to meet the start-ups supported by the Drahi X Novation Center, and visited the prototyping space. He also discussed with entrepreneurs and deeptech start-ups from the Ecole Polytechnique’s ecosystem in the fields of greentech, biotechnology, healthtech and new mobilities like InSpek, Epilab and Mandarine robotics.