“Covid-19: a new era for sustainable development?”: a new webinar series
First session: Biodiversity and the climate: emergency!
Université Paris-Saclay is currently organising a series of webinars on the future of sustainable development in light of the current Covid-19 health crisis and the questions and research the pandemic has prompted. The “Covid-19: a new era for sustainable development?” webinars will feature experts from the University and have been created in collaboration with the media website The Conversation and the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie. The webinars will tackle the question of sustainable development with an interdisciplinary approach in an attempt to understand the health crisis in light of current environmental challenges. The first webinar will take place on Tuesday 9 June at 2pm. Don’t forget to log on and join us!
“Biodiversity and the climate: emergency!” is a powerful theme that resonates perfectly with the current health crisis. For that very reason, it has been chosen to launch this series of interactive webinars on sustainable development. Four experts will be sharing their insights and asking key questions on environmental challenges during the live event:
- Valérie Masson-Delmotte, co-chair of working group 1 at the IPCC since 2015 and climate scientist at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences (LCSE - Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CEA, UVSQ)
- Anne Charlotte Vaissière, research scientist at the Laboratory of Ecology, Systematics and Evolution (ESE - Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, AgroParisTech)
- Laurent Fonbaustier, environmental lawyer and law professor at the Institute of Public Law Studies (IEDP - Université Paris-Saclay)
- Mateo Cordier, economist at the Laboratory of Cultures, Environments, Artic, Representations, Climate (CEARC - Université Paris-Saclay, UVSQ).
The webinar will give participants a unique chance to learn more about this pressing issue and think of concrete actions for a society that needs sustainable development more than ever. Below you will find a taster of the discussions to come.
The Covid-19 crisis: a wake-up call for sustainable development
With part of the global population in lockdown, it seemed as if time had stood still on Earth and as a result, the world’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 5%. “The measures taken to protect us from Covid-19 have led to a slowdown in growth. For the first time, we are in line with national, European and international environmental commitments,” highlights Laurent Fonbaustier.
Valérie Masson-Delmotte agrees but quickly puts things into perspective: “It is incredible yes, but it won’t have any major impact on the climate if recovery plans target high-polluting industries. After these temporary dips, we run the risk of seeing emissions rise again, just like after the 2008-2009 crisis…”
Anne-Charlotte Vassière agrees: “That is why it would be interesting to analyse the impact of the crisis management methods generated by Covid-19 on biodiversity policies and on the actions taken by key players in regard to conservation issues. We need to understand if these changes are limited to this unprecedented period of global lockdown or if they in fact lead to more lasting changes in attitudes.”
Laurent Fonbaustier adds: “The problem is that we can adopt a circular economy approach all we want, but constant growth and the rising global population mean that it is no longer a realistic option. We need to drastically cut back and stop inventing new needs that benefit some but harm others. The more time passes, it becomes harder and harder to meet our commitments, meaning that our reductions will have to be even more substantial.”
Matéo Cordier agrees: “Sustainable development seems to be increasingly becoming an impossible idea to put in place. It is not possible to continue developing as we are and preserve ecosystems at the same time. We must start asking ourselves how we can move away from our current growth paradigm. How can we get our economic system, whether it be companies or households, to respect the limits of the planet’s ecosystems?”
Zoonoses: a concrete consequence of unlimited development?
The risks caused by the development of human societies on the environment are not new. In 2019, the IPCC’s Special Report on Climate Change and Land highlighted that the destruction of ecosystems was responsible for episodes of zoonoses that are increasingly transmitted to human societies. And yet, the Covid-19 crisis shook the world and no one seemed to be prepared for it.
“What makes the current health crisis so unique is that Covid-19 has impacted all sectors and countries”, explains Matéo Cordier. “I think that it is the first time that there is a truly global ecological feedback loop on all levels. An ecological feedback loop is how human activities impact their ecosystem and cause it to run in degraded mode. As a result, the ecosystem services used by human activities are altered and do not function as well, generate less return and/or are of lesser quality.”
“It is important to put this crisis into perspective”, adds Laurent Fonbaustier. “Each year, there are infinitely more deaths caused by poor environmental conditions and all of the world’s environmental problems put together than by this virus. Soon, as the permafrost thaws, anthrax and the 80,000 tonnes of lead stored inside it will be released into the atmosphere, along with a whole host of bacteria and viruses. Not to mention ecosystem problems, the availability of natural resources, the disappearance of pollinators and climate change will all be absolutely critical issues.”
“That is why it is important to consolidate existing work on changes in lifestyles and consumption,” says Anne-Charlotte Vaissière. “The role of economics and other disciplines in social and human sciences, in particular those that link with ecology, is to share their experience and research from a sustainable development perspective, or from another paradigm that could prove to be even more relevant. It is then up to politicians and civil society to stop ignoring their work because they represent a risk for ‘today’s world’ and start using it to make change happen.”
“I think that the current situation raises the question of how our society is capable of anticipating and acting to prevent crises – gradually, intelligently, and democratically,” concludes Valérie Masson-Delmotte. “The same question also remains for climate change and the trends observed: ocean warming, the increase in the frequency of heat waves or the intensity of torrential rains… Everything that we observe today was predicted in research from the scientific community over 30 years ago. However, for many years, it was not deemed to be an immediate risk.”
Don’t miss the first webinar and come and ask your questions!
The experts were interviewed individually by Jane Lecomte, Vice-President for Sustainable Development at Université Paris-Saclay, and Laurie Anne Escudeiro, Sustainable Development Officer at Université Paris-Saclay.