The French President will open the World Conservation Congress tomorrow in Marseille.
We can already bet that the event will not be covered in the way it deserves, as the current public debate, heralding the upcoming presidential debate, is currently preempted by health and security issues. And this is even more true in Marseille.
Still, the event deserves to be reported !
Organized every four years, the World Conservation Congress of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) brings together thousands of representatives of governments, public agencies, NGOs, the scientific world, local communities, indigenous peoples and businesses.
Coming from more than 160 countries, more than 15,000 experts are expected in Marseille to discuss and bring out concrete solutions for the preservation of biodiversity.
The World Conservation Congress is centered around four major poles (program here):
- The Forum, a space for public debate, bringing together people from all over the world to discuss and develop solutions to the most pressing global problems in the field of nature protection and sustainable development;
- the Exhibition, allowing exhibitors to present their research, innovations and other works;
- the IUCN Members’ Assembly;
- and finally the “Nature Generation Areas”.
For nearly 10 days, participants will address issues as diverse as the future of endangered species, biodiversity overseas, deforestation, soil artificialization, or the alternative to pesticides …
The event is supposed to set the global environmental work agenda for the next ten years. Even if this ambition is, as I have written elsewhere, to be put in perspective with what will be decided during the two twin COPs to come (COP 15 biodiversity in Kunming from October 11 to 24 and COP 26 climate from November 1 to 12 in Glasgow).
To be followed closely therefore, even when you are a financier, as the issue of biodiversity is so closely linked to that of the climate.
Iconography: Marseille … (personal collection: thank you Enguerrand!)
After working as an international banker for emerging countries, Laurent Lascols became global head of country risk / sovereign risk (from 2008 to 2013) then global director of public affairs (from 2014 to 2019) for Societe Generale. In 2021, he founded Aristote, an advisory firm and training organization dedicated to environmental economics, sustainable finance and impact finance.