Tackling climate change through an interdisciplinary approach

You are the director of The Transition Institute 1.5. You are also the lead author of the latest IPCC report. How important is the use of research in your courses?

The use of research is extremely important, because it gives me the inspiration to build courses that are innovative and genuine. In my courses, I try to transfer to the students the results and the knowledge I have gained over the years through my research.

You teach the course “designing feasible low-carbon transitions”. Why is it essential for students to learn about past transitions, which were often driven by cheaper energy or mechanisation?

Everybody talks about ‘transition’. However, the transition has not occurred anywhere yet when it comes to the objective of being aligned with the 1.5-degree trajectory. It is, therefore, very important for students to have an overview of what happened in the past, to learn lessons from past energy transitions. We focus especially on past drivers with different objectives to the ones we seek to achieve today in terms of tackling climate change. Today, the point is not boosting profitability and implementing new technologies to achieve greater wealth, but rather trying to make the shift between the carbonised system in which we live, which is damaging the environment, to a system whose properties align with environmental sustainability and climatic issues.

What are the key concepts the students will learn about?

I try to make them understand the fact that when we think about this transition we have to tackle, we must embrace a systemic approach by simultaneously embedding different ‘prisms’, such as the choice of technology, the vectors and the resources they rely on, the financial issues in terms of cost and investment, the question of regulation and rules, the lifestyles and acceptability issues, the need for new types of infrastructure and the externalities, notably in critical resources. If all of these are not taken into consideration right from the very beginning, the ‘designers’ of this low-carbon transition will miss crucial aspects and the solution they implement will turn into other problems. I invite experts in different topics to hold lectures to illustrate these different ‘prisms’. For example, the students attend lectures on geoengineering, geopolitics, rare materials, or lifestyle and behavioural issues. In their professional lives, students will need to understand all of these elements to try to curb the GHG (greenhouse gas emissions) trajectories.

What are the relevant drivers for a feasible low-carbon transition?  Is there a universal vision centred on a particular model?

This is a big question and we do not have the answer to it yet! But what I can say is that we need to mix different disciplines such as climate, energy, finance and economy, just like we do in the Master’s in Climate Change & Sustainable Finance. We can go further by embedding other disciplines. This is precisely the aim of The Transition Institute 1.5 we have launched at Mines Paris-PSL. We believe that all of the disciplines must be taken into account in designing this feasible low-carbon transition. We have to consider beforehand all the potential externalities that will be brought to bear by the strategy we suggest. This is the mindset I want the students to embrace.

In your course, students will discuss the mechanisms underlying the energy transition in selected countries. Which countries are exemplary?

So far, I would say that while some countries may have limited their growth in greenhouse gas emissions, it is really difficult to say that there are examples to follow. We really need to build a new way of developing our economies. We need to think about the lifestyles we are promoting. This is a global question that all regions of the world, in all their diversity, must take into account.

You issued a ‘note d’éclairage’ on the IPCC scenarios with your master’s students. Can you sum up the findings?

“Decoding the IPCC scenarios C1 to C8” was a venture the students undertook in my other course on prospective modelling. The aim of the ‘note d’éclairage’ was to explain how the IPCC scenarios on the mitigation of climate change published in the latest AR6 assessment report were produced by IPCC Working Group III. The students concentrated on Chapter 3 of AR6, which focused on scenarios collating the work of researchers all over the planet. There were more than 1,200 scenarios to explore! I also wanted them to understand how these scenarios had been constructed and to be able to explain them easily to others. They wrote synthesis notes and created infographics to present a simplified view.  

Do the students work on a business case?

Yes. I work with my colleague Professor Sandrine Selosse, who teaches another course on climate change negotiations, which are also a key element enabling students to understand the context in which the low-carbon transition is discussed. We organised an evaluation exercise together. Certain students picked a country and analysed its current situation as regards carbon issues, as well as current and planned policies with a view to carbon neutrality. They chose Morocco, the USA, Denmark and Mexico. Other students, meanwhile, developed business cases based on countries’ behaviour during COP 27. On the one hand, you have their behaviours during the conference, the state of negotiations. On the other, you have the outcome, the position the country will take. The purpose is to understand why they are so far from the aim of reducing their carbon footprint.    

What do you expect your students to learn and have mastered on completion of your courses?

I expect them to have a better of a view of the global situation, to have a clear understanding of all the terminology and the tools people use when it comes to transition issues, to know and master the methodologies on which these different perspectives are built in order to properly interpret the results. I expect them to be able to give better advice in the various professional areas in which they work. I also hope they will understand the disparities between regions when it comes to negotiating or developing climate-related policies. Lastly, I really hope the students will be aware that the transition is a global issue and that it has to be considered on different scales: regional, social, economic …

You also teach "prospective modelling”. Why is it important for MSc in CC & SF students to master this? And how are “prospective modelling” and “designing feasible low-carbon transitions” linked?       

They are closely linked because the design of low-carbon transition scenarios is based on prospective exercises. Prospective modelling is very important, as it is a way of thinking about the future. Note that we are not trying to predict anything; mastering prospective modelling exercises that enlight the future, helps highlight the different possibilities that can occur in order to give good advice and enable decision- or policymakers to choose the best options. The “prospective modelling” course gives students better comprehension of the scenarios we discuss in the “designing feasible low-carbon transitions” course. They will gain the skills they need to explore any kind of scenario they have to work with, to undertake a good interpretation of results and use them properly to develop interesting strategies. In this MSc, all courses are clearly interdependent. We try to build a logical pathway between them to explore with the students all the mandatory elements that will enable them to truly master climate change issues and, hopefully, to participate professionally in solving them!

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