Home » Press Releases » Élysée Palace Announces Opening of IGSD Office in Paris

Élysée Palace Announces Opening of IGSD Office in Paris

/

IGSD Responds to President’s invitation to come to Paris to “Make the Planet Great Again” 

8 June 2017 Paris France- The Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) became the first climate research group to accept French President Emmanuel Macron’s invitation to France to work together on the fight against climate change.

“This is the right place and the right time for fast climate mitigation alongside a President who has demonstrated he can respond to our global climate challenges with speed,” said Durwood Zaelke, IGSD President.

President Emmanuel Macron first extended the invitation in an official statement released June 1st by reiterating his commitment to fighting climate change and to the Paris Agreement. The invitation was extended to “all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, [and] responsible citizens” in efforts to come and work together in France on concrete solutions for “our planet, our environment.”

The following week IGSD opened a new office in Île Saint-Louis, Paris. The Palace of Élysée welcomed IGSD through a video interview with Maxime Beaugrand, IGSD Senior Law Fellow and French Native, and IGSD’s President, now viewed over 75 thousand times.

“We took this invitation to heart and with pride and determination we decided to move immediately to open our office,” said Ms. Beaugrand. “Faced with growing climate impacts, we believe that the world needs leadership that is clear, strong, and innovative. We believe President Macron can support IGSD’s fast mitigation campaign, including strengthening support for the Paris Agreement and the ratification of the Kigali Amendment,” she added.

In support of his climate strategy, President Macron also launched the new website MakeOurPlanetGreatAgain.fr.

“We are rising to President Macron’s challenge to ‘make the planet great again,” added Zaelke, “France is home to a host of leading climate institutions and we look forward to working together with them on fast mitigation solutions.” These institutions include the Clean Climate and Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC), the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), the United Nations Environment’s OzonAction, and the International Energy Agency, among others.

IGSD’s main office is in Washington DC. Zaelke also teaches Climate Justice at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, along with his IGSD colleague, Romina Picolotti, the former Minister of Environment from Argentina.

The original Élysée announcement can be found here (Facebook) and here (Twitter)

For Paris inquiries please contact Maxime Beaugrand- mbeaugrand@igsd.org, Tel: +33 687-690-044