While most of us were rotting in the depths of the Butler library only three weeks into school or trying to rationalize paying for overpriced snacks on campus, the real adults in international climate policy gathered at Buell Hall this past Wednesday to discuss “What is left of the Paris Climate Agreement?”

Columbia hosted a small panel featuring Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson and Paris Climate School at Sciences Po Dean Laurence Tubiana (one of the lead architects of the renowned Paris Agreement). The “debate,” or so they called it, was moderated by M. Sanjayan, CEO of the New York Climate Exchange.

Here’s a (super) condensed breakdown of what was discussed:

Is the Paris Agreement Dead?

Sanjayan opened with the question everyone came for: “Is the Paris climate accord dead?” Both deans, as predicted, gave a firm no as their response.

A decade ago, global models projected an end-of-century warming rise of 3°C to 4°C, but as Abramson pointed out, thanks to clean tech deployment and shifting investments, our collective action quietly shaved off 0.5°C to 1°C, lowering projections to roughly 2.5°C or 2.6°C. When Sanjayan asked the room if anyone knew about this progress, virtually no hands went up (except students studying at the Climate School, of course). Tubiana attributed this demonstrated ignorance to a battle over public narratives.

However, discussing why forecasting further progress is more difficult, Abramson noted that although climate physics is hard, “it is harder to predict what humans will do than it is [to predict] the climate.” The unpredictability of our actions and money-hungry industries will prove to be the biggest obstacle to us finding out what truly lies ahead. Following that, Sanjayan, in comedic fashion, illustrated this human unpredictability by noting that 20 years after chopping off their king’s head in the French Revolution, the French went ahead and appointed an emperor anyway. Tubiana, if I remember correctly, managed a chuckle.

Reframing the Narrative: Save Your Fridge

To bridge political divides, Abramson outlined three historical phases of US climate messaging.

1. Moral duty to save the ecosystem and future generations.
2. Levelized cost of energy using dollar-per-watt metrics (which Abramson noted nobody outside the academic bubble understands, so I’m not going to attempt to explain this here either).
3. Individual energy security such as putting solar panels on your roof so your food doesn’t rot during power grid outages.

Abramson added that to bridge the political divides inherent to the discussions surrounding climate issues means meeting people where they are, such as discussing nature conservation with Republican hunters or framing climate issues alongside heart and lung surgeons like former Senator Bill Frist.

“Combat Sport” & The Death of Checkbox ESG

Drawing from her upcoming book, Climate Change is a Combat Sport (Le Climat est un sport de combat), Tubiana warned that the green transition talked about since the dawn of time won’t happen miraculously through science alone. Well-funded fossil fuel incumbents, such as those that are now flush with cash following the 2022 Ukraine energy crisis, are actively fighting back.

For climate students entering the job market, both deans agreed on a sad truth: “Checkbox ESG” is dead: companies and governments no longer seek traditional ESG staff whose job it is to merely fill out carbon forms. Rather, they need capable crisis managers who are versed in law, finance, and political strategy. In some cases, as Sanjayan emphasized, companies have started to discard ESG entirely, such as Uber, which reportedly recently eliminated its standalone ESG team.

Finally, the event also served as an announcement for the new Joint Master’s Degree in Climate between Columbia Climate School and Sciences Po Paris, launching in the 2027 academic year. You can find more information here.

Other Interesting Notes

• Norway’s EV Takeover:
  • In Q1 of this year, only seven gasoline-powered cars were sold in all of Norway. “I almost want to go talk to those [six] people,” Sanjayan joked.
• Macron’s Roast of the IRA:
  • Sanjayan recalled sitting at French President Emmanuel Macron’s table at the Library of Congress as Macron berated the Biden administration for going too far with Inflation Reduction Act subsidies.

The Takeaway, Perhaps.

If your post-grad plan was to land a cozy, six-figure corporate ESG job with main responsibilities such as making aesthetic slides about carbon offsets, it’s time to stop dreaming. Columbia and Sciences Po tell us that saving the planet requires more than just regurgitating talking points you hear in a class discussion about “green energy transition.” 

Header via Bwarchives