The Shift Project (also called ''The Shift'' or TSP) is a French
nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
created in 2010 that aims to
limit both
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
and the dependency of our economy on
fossil fuels
A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geologica ...
.
Presentation, goals and organization
The Shift Project is a French
nonprofit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
created in January 2010 in Paris by energy-climate experts such as
Jean-Marc Jancovici,
Geneviève Férone-Creuzet and Michel Lepetit. The organization aims to address two issues raised by the use of
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...
:
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
and the
depletion of fossil fuels. The Shift works as a
think tank
A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
that shares ideas with economic, political, academic and voluntary actors.
The Shift Project is funded by corporate sponsors.
Its budget for 2017 was about 600,000 euros.
The organization is led by a group of three people elected by the board of directors, which includes members of the sponsoring companies. A group of experts, called the "Expert Committee" (),
ensures the scientific validity of the work done by The Shift Project. This group of experts (in economics, finance, climate, physics, history...) includes
Alain Grandjean,
Gaël Giraud,
Hervé Le Treut,
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele and Jacques Treiner. When the think tank was created, the first director was
Cédric Ringenbach. He held this position until 2016, when he left The Shift Project and created the
nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
The Climate Collage, which was later renamed to
The Climate Fresk. Now headed by
Matthieu Auzanneau, The Shift has a team of about ten employees and works with volunteers who are grouped into an independent nonprofit called ''The Shifters''.
The Shift examines the dependency of our economy on oil through three angles: the potential
return
Return may refer to:
In business, economics, and finance
* Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense.
* Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment
* Tax return, a blank document or t ...
of economic growth, the issues related to the finite amount of
oil and, of course, the climate change due to carbon emissions. According to The Shift, although the GDP may have use cases, it is not really useful, especially because it does not consider natural resources (so it does not account for their limited availability) or resulting externalities like
greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...
.
Projects, events and activities
Since 2012, The Shift Project has organized an annual two-day meeting called The Shift Forum
with the objective of running a debate between big industrial and financial company leaders and experts on climate, energy and economics. The Shift also organizes many public events, sometimes in collaboration with other organizations like the Business and Climate Summit 2015 or the World Efficiency 2015.
The nonprofit also contributed to the National Debate for Energy Transition in France and its president,
Jean-Marc Jancovici, is a member of the French Committee on Climate Change.
Main publications
The Shift mostly works in task forces: for a couple of months or years, a group of experts (from higher education and academic research, NGOs, public sector, companies...) is set up on a well-defined question. When the project ends, the task force writes a report and presents it to concerned actors. The report is then made publicly available.
Addressed issues include the building rehabilitation to make them more energy-efficient, the relation between energy and GDP, alternative metrics to GDP, the scientific rigor of energy scenarios, sustainable mobility or the price of carbon.
For the price of carbon in Europe, the Shift suggests to set a
reservation price
In economics, a reservation (or reserve) price is a limit on the price of a good (economics), good or a service (economics), service. On the demand side, it is the highest price that a buyer is Willingness to pay, willing to pay; on the supply (ec ...
to 20
euro
The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...
s and increase it every year.
Since 2013, The Shift has been gathering experts on the energy rehabilitation of buildings and made propositions like the Energy Efficiency Passport. In addition to being experimented by the Shift through the nonprofit organization ''Expérience P2E'', this building passport was then included in the
Energy Transition Law and is now used by various actors in the building industry.
In 2016, at The Shift Project request, the engineer
Francisco Luciano gathered a team of experts including the
SNCF
The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...
,
Vinci Autoroutes,
EDF, the
CVTC, start-ups in
car sharing
Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pr ...
, the senior official Olivier Paul-Dubois-Taine and researchers. In September 2017, The Shift published the report "''Decarbonize mid-density areas – Less carbon more bond''", for which The Shift and the project leader Francisco Luciano were invited by the
Ministry for Transportation to attend the
Mobility Foundations and various governmental working groups. The report, which is aimed to be well-argued and quantitative, concludes that it is possible to strongly decarbonize mobility in suburban areas thanks to
cycling
Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...
,
car sharing
Carsharing or car sharing (AU, NZ, CA, TH, & US) or car clubs (UK) is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It differs from traditional car rental in that the owners of the cars are often pr ...
and fast public transports. The working group also studied the
delivery of goods and
remote work
Remote work (also called telecommuting, telework, work from or at home, WFH as an initialism, hybrid work, and other terms) is the practice of work (human activity), working at or from one's home or Third place, another space rather than from ...
.
On 4 October 2018, the think tank published a report on the
digital economy
The digital economy is a portmanteau of digital computing and economy, and is an umbrella term that describes how traditional Brick and mortar, brick-and-mortar economic activities (production, distribution, trade) are being transformed by the ...
impact on climate and environment. The report notes that the worldwide energy consumption of the digital economy grows at a very fast rate (about 9% a year) with a worsening
energy efficiency, unlike most economic sectors. It concludes by advocating digital sobriety to minimize most of this impact growth.
Pledge for climate: The 2017 Decarbonize Europe Manifesto
The call for action of the economic actors
On 21 March 2017, the think tank made public the signatories of a text called "Decarbonize Europe Manifesto". This text is described as a wake-up call 15 months after the
Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement (also called the Paris Accords or Paris Climate Accords) is an international treaty on climate change that was signed in 2016. The treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The Paris Agreement was ...
. It begins with: "We, the signatories of this Manifesto to decarbonize Europe, call upon all European States to immediately implement policies aiming to achieve a level of greenhouse gas emissions close to zero by 2050!" and aims to "''guarantee peace''". It ends with: "We call upon all European actors – individuals, businesses and public authorities – to implement concrete and coherent strategies which can meet the challenge posed by climate change and the limits of natural resources.http://decarbonizeurope.org/en/" The Shift project claims the decarbonization of Europe is a challenge, but it is necessary for a modern future.
It is supported by more than 3,000 citizens including 80 company directors and around forty scientists and political figures. The press mainly mentions the signature of economic leaders like the magazine
''Challenges'': "Climate: Why the company directors (at last) unite to decarbonize Europe".
The think tank then called candidates running for president for a commitment in favor of a European plan to fight climate change that would abide by the Paris Agreement
Signatories of the Manifesto
Company directors who signed the Manifesto include
Elisabeth Borne (
RATP),
Martin Bouygues
Martin Pierre Marie Bouygues (; born 3 May 1952) is the chairman and chief executive officer of the French company Bouygues, which employs around 130,000 people globally. It was founded by his father Francis Bouygues in 1952.
In 2015, he was r ...
(
Bouygues
Bouygues S.A. () is a French engineering group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on the Euronext, Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip (stock market), blue chip in the ...
),
Patricia Barbizet (
Artémis-Kering),
Guillaume Pepy (
SNCF
The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...
),
Christophe Cuvillier (
Unibail Rodamco),
Nicolas Dufourq (
BPI France),
Pierre Blayau (
Caise centrale de réassurance),
Stéphane Richard
Stéphane Richard (born 24 August 1961) is a French businessman who has been serving as chief executive officer and chairman of the worldwide mobile phone network Orange since 2011. In December 2021, he resigned as both chairman and chief execut ...
(
Orange),
Alain Montarant (
MACIF),
Nicolas Théry (
Crédit mutuel),
Denis Kessler (
SCOR),
Xavier Huillard (
Vinci),
Jean-Dominique Senard (
Michelin
Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...
) and
Agniès Ogier (
Thalys
Thalys (French: ) was a brand name used for high-speed rail, high-speed train services between Paris Gare du Nord and both Amsterdam Centraal and German cities in the Rhein-Ruhr, including Aachen, Köln Hauptbahnhof, Cologne, Düsseldorf Hauptba ...
).
Scientists who signed the Manifesto include climatologists like
Jean Jouzel,
Hervé Le Treut and
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele; the biologist and senior official
Dominique Dron; the mathematician
Ivar Ekeland; physicists like
Sébastien Balibar,
Roger Balian and
Yves Bréchet; economists like
Gaël Giraud,
Roger Guesnerie,
Philippe Aghion,
Christian de Perthuis,
Jean-Marie Chevalier and
Jean-Charles Hourcade; directors of
grandes écoles Grandes may refer to:
*Agustín Muñoz Grandes, Spanish general and politician
* Banksia ser. Grandes, a series of plant species native to Australia
* Grandes y San Martín, a municipality located in the province of Ávila, Castile and León, Spain ...
like
Meriem Fournier (
AgroParis-Tech Nancy),
Olivier Oger (
EDHEC) and
Vincent Laflèche (
Mines ParisTech).
Other people who signed it include former ministers like
Arnaud Montebourg,
Serge Lepeltier, the Belgian
Philippe Maystadt and the president of the union
CFE-CGC François Hommeril.
Nine proposals
The Shift Project published "9 propositions to take Europe to a new area" about as many projects that should be done imperatively to meet the Paris Agreement, according to the Shift. The
AFP specifies that these propositions are made "in parallel with the Manifesto" and are not "endorsed by the signatories". The daily economic newspaper
''Les Échos'' highlights the "plan for a 'carbon-free' Europe".
These propositions concern seven sectors: electricity, transportation, construction, industry, food, agriculture and forestry. They are described in depth in the book "Let's decarbonize!".
References
External links
*
Decarbonize Europe Manifesto
{{Authority control
Climate change organizations
Energy organizations
Environmental organizations based in France