Third Sustainable Development Seminar at l’X on April 7th-8th

Screenshot of the inaugural conference of the 2021 Sustainable Development Seminar

On April 7th and 8th, École Polytechnique organized its third seminar on sustainable development, which is part of the five strong commitments made by the School in June 2019 on this major issue.

It took place over two days, divided into four half-days sessions, each one questioning a key word, often associated with environmental challenges: Limits, Transitions, Collapses? Renewals. It is mandatory for students of the new engineering cycle class (X 2020) and third-year Bachelor students.

Interdisciplinary teams of teacher-researchers and students co-constructed rich content for each of these sessions. Although entirely organized remotely, the seminar created multiple opportunities for interaction and collaborative exchange.

A debate with Jean Jouzel and Pierre Larrouturou

In his opening speech, Éric Labaye, President of École Polytechnique, emphasized the importance of the challenges raised by sustainable development. He stressed the role of École Polytechnique in addressing these challenges based on facts and within the framework of scientific approaches that seek solutions and identify levers for action.

The highlight of the seminar was the inaugural conference, which brought together the climatologist Jean Jouzel and the economist Pierre Larrouturou for a debate of around 600 participants present online.

Jean Jouzel was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1994 and vice-chair of the working group on the physical basis of climate change within this body from 2002 to 2015. Pierre Larrouturou is a Member of the European Parliament since 2019 and founder of the "Nouvelle Donne" party.

Jean Jouzel and Pierre Larrouturou joined forces in 2017 to launch a project to fight global warming on a European scale, The Finance-Climate Pact.

At the international symposium "RefleXions: Researching, training and acting for sustainable development" in June 2019, the School made five major commitments that are now an integral part of its strategy:

- The implementation of a sustainable development training certification.

- The training of 100% of its students in sustainable development.

- The creation of an interdisciplinary research center on renewable energies

- The launch of an international student challenge.

- A carbon neutral campus.