Regulation in the fight against global warming at the heart of the 2nd REFLEXIONS international conference at École Polytechnique

On June 9, École Polytechnique hosted the second REFLEXIONS international conference, organized by the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, on the theme of regulatory issues in the fight against global warming and, more broadly, sustainable transition.

Introduced by a keynote speech from Agnès Pannier-Runacher, French Minister for Energy Transition, the symposium brought together a number of academic and scientific experts, public and private sector leaders and civil society players to discuss the challenges of regulation in the fight against global warming and, more broadly, sustainable transition, in four round-table discussions.

The first round table, opened by Teresa Ribera, Third Vice-President of the Spanish Government and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenges, focused on the scientific foundations of regulation as applied to the energy sector, with contributions from Valérie Masson-Delmotte, research director at CEA and co-chair of IPCC Group 1 since 2015, Philippe Drobinski, director of the interdisciplinary center at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris Energy for Climate (E4C), Laurence Tubiana, managing director of the European Climate Foundation, and Estelle Brachlianoff, managing director of global utilities leader Veolia.

Jo Tyndall, Director of the Environment Department at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), opened the second round-table discussion on the regulation of green finance, which also featured Pierre-Alix Binet, Director of Regulatory and Institutional Affairs at Banque Postale, Paul Schreiber, Senior Advisor at the non-governmental organization Reclaim Finance, Peter Tankov, Professor of Quantitative Finance at ENSAE Paris, Patricia Criffo, Professor at École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris and Associate Director of the E4C Center, and Virgine Vitiello, Director of Socially Responsible Investment at Caisse des Dépôts Group.

The afternoon's two round tables were dedicated respectively to market regulation and changing consumer behavior (participants: Serge Abiteboul, member of the Collège de l'Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques, des Postes et de la Distribution de la Presse - ARCEP, Nathalie Stubler, special advisor for decarbonization at the Air France KLM Group, Thibaud Vergé, vice-president of the French Competition Authority, Isabelle Spiegel, Environmental Director, Vinci Construction Group and Pierre-Jean Benghozi, Director of Research, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Professor, École Polytechnique and Professor, University of Geneva) and feedback (participants: Tjaša Ficko, Deputy Mayor of the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana; Rajenda Shende, founder of the Green TERRE Foundation; and Kahea Pacheco, Co-Executive Director of the Women's Earth Alliance).

At the first international scientific symposium, REFLEXIONS: Research, training and action for sustainable development, held on June 7, 2019 to mark the 225th anniversary of École Polytechnique, Eric Labaye, President of the School and of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, made five commitments to mark École Polytechnique's entry into the era of sustainable development: the training of 100% of students in sustainable development, the introduction of a sustainable development training certification, the creation of an interdisciplinary center for renewable energies, the objective of a carbon-neutral campus and the launch of an international challenge to imagine a carbon-free city.

These five commitments, all of which have since been implemented, are also at the heart of the École Polytechnique's Climate Plan, published in early 2022, and whose objectives are integrated into École Polytechnique's 2022-2026 Contract of Objectives and Performance.

The Institut Polytechnique de Paris will publish the proceedings of this second edition of the REFLEXIONS International Conference shortly.