restore and amplify nature’s capacity to store CO2 – Libération

One of the ideas that most strikes my interlocutors is when I explain to them that investing is not about predicting the future, but about shaping it. Why does this idea, so seemingly simple, catch their attention so much? This is because the usually stated objective of the financial sector is to maximize returns while limiting risks. An approach that neglects the economic, social and environmental consequences of investments. But if we consider financial performance as a consequence of investment whose primary goal would now be to solve the major problems of our society, this reverses the priorities. A pure reversal of logic.

My answer is that we are working to shape a future where everyone can eat their fill and in a healthy way, where we can all inhabit the Earth and produce sustainably, where everyone can take care of their health (physical and mental) on a daily basis. , where educational and cultural models allow everyone to contribute to this fertile future and where trust is at the heart of our economy and our societies.

This reversal requires changing the way decisions are made. These can no longer be implemented by looking at the past performance of different sectors and reproducing historical patterns as current financial models do. We must do the opposite: instead of looking at the present and being informed by the past, we navigate towards our target future and are informed by the present on the best decisions to make to get there.

To identify these solutions, let’s look at what the science tells us. We, for example, started by offering a course on the environmental issues of the 21st century. This course, under open license, is also the basis of a compulsory course for everyone in the first year at Paris-Dauphine University, and we are in the process of writing its successor on the oceans, with the Stockholm Resilience Center and the University of British Columbia.

Our immersion in environmental issues revealed to us that the priority, to achieve these objectives in the light of global warming, was not, against all expectations, to reduce CO2 emissions. No, the priority, as demonstrated by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, is to restore and amplify nature’s capacity to store CO2. Indeed, in my opinion, it is the most resilient and efficient path because it allows nature to continue to absorb our human activity over time and not release the CO2 it stores into the atmosphere. sometimes for millennia. In addition, certain solutions based on its natural reactions, such as carbon mineralization, can replace industrial processes that emit high levels of greenhouse gases.

Our best chance of mitigating the effects of global warming is therefore to urgently and massively restore and amplify the biodiversity of our soils, our forests and the ocean. Of these three subjects, the least invested and the most massive is that of the ocean: it represents nearly 70% of the Earth’s surface, 30% of CO2 emissions captured annually, 50% to 80% of the Oxygen produces and supports 3 billion people.