The 3rd DEFi symposium on solutions and actions for the ecological transition

Negotiations at the United Nations on climate, biodiversity, plastics, the ocean, US-China-EU rivalries over low-carbon industries and technologies… the ecological transition faces an uncertain and shifting context.

Nevertheless, public authorities, businesses and financial players are faced with the dual challenge of finding concrete solutions to this challenge, while taking environmental issues into account: in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preserving terrestrial and marine biodiversity, there are the issues of resource availability, adapting to climate change, changing lifestyles and social justice.

So, after the first two editions dedicated to biodiversity, the 2024 edition of DEFi proposed, on Wednesday December 18, a new day of high-level exchanges dedicated to this systemic ecological transition to contribute to the dialogue between companies and financial players. The event brought together more than 250 executives and experts from industry, finance, consulting and services, public authorities, NGOs and scientific institutions.

At this third edition, a number of model changes, their conditions of adoption and their possible generalization, were debated: financing transitions, integrating environmental issues into reporting and financial analysis frameworks, capacity to invest in new business models, changes in governance, etc. Some of the day’s highlights :

• Deciphering the IPBES Nexus report; transition cannot succeed if it privileges one issue over all others;
• Presentation of the IAPB’s framework for biodiversity credits and the CGDD’s scheme for natural compensation, restoration and renaturation sites;
• Launch of the EpE Health-Environment Commission publication ‘Taking action against plastic pollution: a collective effort’;
• Launch of the We Demain supplement illustrating the 12 priorities of the ETE 2030 study with examples of collective action;
• Presentation of the guide to analyzing companies’ carbon transition performance, published by the IFD in November 2024;
• Launch of the EpE Finance Committee’s publication ‘La finance, accélérateur de la transition écologique?’ ;
• Presentation of the corporate awareness grid on Just Transition published by the Coalition of Investors for Just Transition in October 2024.
• Launch of the proceedings of the June 2024 HR symposium, ‘Le dialogue social, accélérateur de la transition écologique’ ;
• Presentation of the priorities of the 3rd National Climate Change Adaptation Plan and the European ClimateFIT program on adaptation financing by the Institut de la Finance Durable;

Throughout the day, participants emphasized the need to develop solutions that reconcile economic and environmental performance, contributing to prosperous, resilient societies. Within companies, this is already happening through the deployment of operational approaches to environmental, social and governance issues. Three areas of change proposed by EpE’s ETE 2030 study have been widely debated: sobriety, the circular economy and a new relationship with nature.

The dialogue between public authorities, companies and financial players, supported by science, offers the opportunity to promote the emergence of shared metrics and analysis methodologies adapted to different types of decision. The regulatory framework offers the opportunity to build effective tools for steering the transition. All stakeholders agree that this ecological transition must contribute to respecting the planet’s limits, while improving social justice and business competitiveness; and that all this requires innovation. In this context, we need to give players the visibility they need to build on the economic opportunities offered by this ecological transition. It’s a lever for European power in a competition between highly diversified global models.