Branching off: students’ environmental activism
In April 2022, the AgroParisTech graduation ceremony produced an unforgettable show. Eight students called for their peers to desert the careers and industry they’re expected to follow and to “branch off” in protest against industry giants who view the climate emergency as “business as usual”. Despite not achieving the same buzz as the students’ speech in 2022, others like Clément Choisne in 2018 had already made a similar appeal, which paved the way for a major debate on the position of universities in the climate transition. Since then, students from ENSAT, HEC and Polytechnique have also used their graduation ceremonies as a political platform.
Media outlet Usbek & Rica recently organised a mock-court event called the Tribunal pour les générations futures. The topic up for debate: “should we desert?” Held at the Sciences Po university, the latter gave a real platform to the subject, thus recognising its cultural and political importance.
The academic world reacts
Up until then, the academic world was singled out for its timid response to the climate transition. A 2019 report by The Shift Project pointed out at the time that only 11% of the higher education establishments included in the study offered a compulsory course dedicated to climate and energy issues. As the trend for “branching out” has taken hold, these issues are already starting to be integrated into university courses. There’s a radical shift at Mines Paris – PSL, which hosted an education hackathon enabling students to get involved in redesigning certain courses. In fact, there’s a module on “Earth and Society” offering 84 hours of teaching with Jean-Marc Jancovici as a star guest. In Lyon, INSA has teamed up with The Shift Project to transform its degree programme around a Manifeste pour l’ingénieur du XXIème siècle, a manifesto for the 21st-century engineer, the objective being “to incorporate socio-ecological issues.” In Clermont-Ferrand, ESC and Strate Ecole de Design Lyon are developing in partnership a master’s degree in Strategy and Design for the Anthropocene, led by Alexandre Monnin and intended for those he calls “redirectionnistes” (or “direction-changers”). The Sciences-Po has created a compulsory 24-hour module on Ecological Culture, designed to “pass on the best analytical tools for deciphering and understanding environmental issues.”
A global movement
While the appeal from AgroParisTech students remains unique in France, it is however part of a global movement to transform universities, both in terms of degree content and how the academic world functions. In a US study conducted by Cambridge International, 97% of students surveyed say that it’s important to be able to learn about “global issues” as part of an academic course. In the UK, 96% of universities have a publicly-available strategy to reduce emissions and 82% report and publish their results. The Mission Zero plan is also looking to rely on the academic excellence of English universities to promote innovation on the subject. On a global level, initiatives such as the International Universities Climate Alliance and Education Race to Zero bring together universities in order to concentrate efforts in the fight against climate change. Others, like Stanford and Columbia, have even gone so far as to open specialist schools with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the Columbia Climate School.
From the Grenoble agreement to the ChangeNOW ranking
Created by students as part of the student COP2, the Grenoble agreement aims to encourage schools to commit to the climate transition. Several dozen schools and universities have already signed the agreement, which outlines 11 main objectives around student awareness, adapting courses, training staff, and reducing emissions and carbon footprint. The document helps develop concrete tools that help push educational establishments to transform. In a similar vein, rankings which take into consideration a university’s environmental and social dimension present new arguments for students when deciding where to study. In France, the ChangeNOW/Les Echos Start ranking attempts to propose new indicators. In the US, the Princeton Review’s Green Rating Methodology is also developing a ranking methodology. The UI GreenMetric World University Rankings from Universitas Indonesia is even more ambitious: since 2010, it has analysed the commitments and initiatives of 956 institutions in 80 countries around the world.
The risks and opportunities facing universities
The idea of “branching out”, as proposed by the students at AgroParisTech, goes hand in hand with desertion, in order to “seek other ways, to refuse to serve this system.” For universities, this raises the risk of seeing the most talented students offer their services elsewhere, in ways considered meaningful, such as activism or retraining to be in the “field”. While on the other hand, the transition opens up the opportunity to create new educational or integration models, in line with the aspirations of young people. The ETRE universities (Ecole de la Transition Écologique, or Climate Transition School) are riding the movement’s wave by offering field training related to “green” trades (repairs, solar panel installation, bicycle mechanics, carpentry, eco-construction, etc.). Meanwhile, La Solive – housed in residence by Leonard – offers professional training in energy renovation for those looking to change careers.
So where do engineers fit in all this?
Behind this “branching-off” movement, what is questioned most is the social role of engineers – and more broadly, of scientists. A recent article in Le Monde evoked the influence of Grothendieck, a brilliant mathematician and recipient of the Fields Medal in 1966, who abandoned an institutional career to lead an environmental crusade. Behind this example, there’s the idea of an image of the scientist who’s less agnostic vis-à-vis social and environmental commitments. The Polytechnique’s students’ opposition to a new LVMH research laboratory being built near the campus is part of this activism rationale for students traditionally considered submissive. Concerning researchers, the Labos 1point5 collective research lab illustrates a desire to participate more directly in the transition, by endeavouring to “better understand and reduce the impact of scientific research activities on the environment, in particular on the climate.”
Beyond the protest, according to the sociologist (and engineer) Pierre Vetlz, this “branching-off” movement carries an encouraging message. The author of Réinventer la société industrielle par l’écologie explains that young people’s refusal “to do things with which they are not aligned is very encouraging for the future,” because it opens the door to new collective narratives that can motivate change.
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