Hervé Le Treut, climatologist and former member of the IPCC, was the guest of “8h30 de franceinfo”, Sunday November 6. Opening in Egypt of the COP27 for the climate, adaptation to climate change… he answers questions from Jules de Kiss and Hadrien Bect.
COP27 in Egypt, an “absolutely essential” event for Hervé le Treut
COP27 (Conference of Parties on Climate Change) opens for two weeks in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. Hervé le Treut, 66, disagrees with environmental activist Greta Thunberg, 19, who claims that such international meetings are machines for “greenwashing“.”I think it’s absolutely essential“, estimates the French climatologist. “That is to say that if we didn’t have the COPs, I don’t know what could replace them today. These are things that have been a school, I think, for a lot of people and for me: we find ourselves with people who come from all the countries of the planet and we try to see with them what is possible.“
We must put things into perspective, according to the member of the Academy of Sciences, because “today, there are not many other solutions than this. […] We should be pleased that there are still the COPs. If there were no COPs, I think there would be nothing instead“.
Hervé Le Treut “understands” the acts of civil disobedience of environmental activists
Civil disobedience actions are multiplying to warn of the climate emergency. They are sometimes orchestrated by scientists like the collective “Scientists in Rebellion“. A mode of action on the ground which is not that of Hervé le Treut, even if the climatologist says he understands this state of mind: “This is indeed a concern that goes beyond the problem of the climate as we see it. And I understand them. I am quite attached to our field of political action. But I understand very well that there is a desire to do something else, but which affects much broader areas than the climate problem.“.