Sustainability and ecological transition

The sustainability of our social model has become a major issue in the face of the consequences of global warming and the global crisis, both environmental and social. You will find below a selection of documentary resources available at ESSEC's K-lab or freely accessible on the internet. This will allow you to approach the scientific findings of the crisis and its consequences on the economy and society. It will also focus on resources intended for higher education. This first approach should be completed by your own research. This selection of resources has been put together with the help of Together and the students of the collective ESSEC Transition.

K-lab resources

Books

You will find many books on these topics at the Learning Center, either by going directly to the shelves VII 60 (environment), VII 601 (sustainable development), or, better yet, by searching for the following keywords on Discovery. For example:

Some examples of books you can borrow from the Learning Center:

Gemenne, François, Aleksandar Rankovic, et Atelier de cartographie de Sciences Po. Atlas de l’Anthropocène. Presses de Sciences Po, 2021.
Cécile Renouard,..., Frédérique Brossard Børhaug,..., Ronan Le Cornec,... [etc.]. Pédagogie de la transition. Les Liens qui Libèrent, 2022
Collectif FORTES. Manuel de la grande transition. Les Liens qui Libèrent, 2020

Journals

MOOCs

The K-lab provides you with access to thousands of MOOCs on Coursera, and free certification if you pass a MOOC. Here is a short selection of courses and specializations you can take on Coursera or other platforms:

Entreprise et changement climatique / Companies and climate change (ESSEC)
Exploring Our Responses to Climate Change : 3 courses specialization (University of Colorado Boulder)
Act on Climate: Steps to Individual, Community, and Political Action (University of Michigan)
Driving business towards the Sustainable Development Goals (Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University)
Université Virtuelle Environnement et Développement durable on FUN MOOC (in French)
L’ADEME on FUN MOOC (in French)
Energie et climat season 1, season 2 and season 3 by the associations Avenir Climatique and Bilan Carbone, on Youtube (in French)

Web resources

United Nations:

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals designed by the UN give us the path to a better and more sustainable future for all.

IPCC reports: comprehensive scientific and technical assessment of climate change. A summary, written in a more accessible manner, is also published for policy makers. The most recent reports (2021-2022) have not yet been translated into French. If you prefer the video format, you can view their Youtube channel.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

International Resource Panel Reports on decoupling, cities, water, metals, land and soil, food, trade, resource efficiency, green technology and global material flows.

Government Sites and Reports:

“The carbon footprint of the French remains stable”, general commission for sustainable development (January 2020, in French).

Transition(s) 2050 by ADEME : 4 scenarii for a carbon neutral France in 2050. Article from the journal Futuribles which presents an introduction of the scenarii (in French).

Resource center for adaptation to climate change (in French)

National observatory on the effects of climate change (ONERC, in French)

Seminar on sustainability (France Stratégie, in French)

Statistical data and studies on climate change, energy, environment, housing and transport ((Ministry of Ecological Transition, in French)

Media:

Reporterre: independent media dedicated to ecology (in French).

On his website and on social networks, Thomas Wagner aka Bon Pote analyzes the news related to sustainability and ecological transition. Some articles are available in English.

Novethic is a subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts Group, and a media company specialized in CSR and sustainable finance.

Actu-Environnement is a professional press title specialized in the environmental fields (in French).

The Good Goods: media on responsible fashion (in French).

Podcasts:

Time to Shift by Shift Project (in French)
THE BIG SHIFT ! L'écologie pour tous by Xavier Seux (in French)
présages : conversations, ideas to feed the mind and radically question the state of our world (in French)
The Climate Question (BBC)

Other organisations and reports:

In this research paper, Lucas Chancel, from the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics, shows that the richest 10% of the global population emits nearly 48% of global emissions in 2019, the top 1% emits 17% of the total, whereas the poorest half of the global population emits 12% of global emissions.

Green Finance Observatory : An independant think tank composed of researchers and former finance and business professionalsworking on carbon markets, natural & human capital and sustainable finance.

Institut du développement durable et des relations internationales : publications, podcasts and events. Most notably, they published a report in 2013 to challenge the notion of growth (in French).

Stockholm Resilience Center : international research centre on resilience and sustainability science, responsible for the study on the 9 planetary limits.

Citepa (Centre technique de référence en matière de pollution atmosphérique et de changement climatique) : non-profit organisation and State operator for the French Environment Ministry fighting against atmospheric pollution and climate change by calculating, interpreting and disseminating information on reliable emission data.

Shift Project : think tank working for a carbon-free economy. For example, they have written a Plan de Transformation de l'Economie Française (Plan To Transform the French Economy). They also publish videos on Youtube (in French).

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services : independent intergovernmental body.

Institute for climate economics : think tank with expertise in economics and finance whose mission is to support action against climate change.

Haut conseil pour le climat : The High Council on Climate (HCC) is an independent body tasked with issuing advice and recommendations to the French government on the delivery of public measures and policies aimed at reducing France's greenhouse gas emissions. Only the 2019 and 2020 annual reports have been translated to English, but more recent reports are available in French.

Convention des Entreprises pour le Climat (CEC) : Convention of businesses for the climate (in French).

Alumni for the planet

Global Atlas of Environmental Justice : documents and catalogues social conflicts around environmental issues.

Social media:

The Science Po library manages Twitter lists that include many accounts specialized in various subjects:

There are also many Instagram accounts that can help you keep up with current events and get inspired to take action for the environment. These are only a few exemples (in French):

On Est Prêt : awareness movement on environmental and social issues.
Zero Waste France : association campaigning for waste reduction and better resource management.
Pierre Rouvière (ecolo_mon_cul) : engineer, eco-designer.
Vegan Tourist Paris : map of vegan restaurants in Paris.
Mélanie Lily (LilyFairly) : gardener.
Eva les petits plats : vegan chef.

Higher education

Office for Climate Education : international initiative for climate change education.

Education for Sustainable Development Goals: learning objectives by UNESCO.

Guides and fact sheets by RESES, Réseau Étudiant pour une Société Ecologique et Solidaire (in French).

GreenComp : The European sustainability competence framework.

Education relative à l’environnement: Open Access journal (in French).

« ClimatSup Business, Former les acteurs de l’économie de demain » a project by Shift Project (in French).

The Transition Campus.

The platform EnseignerLeClimat.org to share educational resources for teaching transition (in French).

The Convention pour la Transition des Etablissements du Supérieur (in French), an association which notably initiated the Accord de Grenoble (signed by ESSEC).

The Great Barometer of the ecological transition, a national survey on the consideration of ecology in higher education conducted by the collective Pour un réveil écologique.

The Association fédérative Nationale des Étudiant.e.s en Géographie, aménagement, urbanisme, environnement et disciplines territoriales has published several guides, including "Le Guide de Mon Association Durable" and "Les Plans Vraiment Verts : ou comment faire entrer la biodiversité sur les campus" (in French).

The Université Virtuelle Environnement et Développement Durable has produced a pedagogical file comprising 68 videos to better understand and teach environmental issues (in French).

The Climate Fresk and the Fresque de la Biodiversité (in French).

The Sulitest, to measure your level of knowledge regarding sustainable development.

The ebook "Enjeux de la transition écologique : Enseigner la transition écologique aux étudiants de licence à l’université" by Université Paris-Saclay (in French).

The report "Sensibiliser et former aux enjeux de la transition écologique et du développement durable dans l’enseignement supérieur" by Jean Jouzel (february 2022, in French).