Dear clients, dear friends,
Beyond my wishes for a waning of the epidemic waves, may I invite you to seize the green ecological wave, in its climatic but also political dimensions, with in mind its impact within our profession.
Ecological thinking may date back to Aristotle and find its roots in the great explorations of the Renaissance, but as a science, the word was only devised in 1866 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Beyond good intentions, ecology has also served political purposes and it has fueled the alter-globalization movements, in some respects taking over from a Marxism-Leninism that was collapsing all over: "I came to green through red, because the left disappointed me", to quote Alain Lipietz1.
From the 1970s onwards, the human was designated as the colonizer-responsible, and James Lovelock, an English climatologist, published the controversial "Gaia" theory, named after the goddess of Greek mythology who personifies our planet: "Mother Earth" would become the subject of law and the human beings living on it would form a super-organism that would self-regulate the components necessary for life.
Beyond the initial cleavages, the "ecological conscience" now affects all parts of the society, bringing together philosophers and scientists. In his book "Les sept écologies "2, Luc Ferry provides a useful map of the competing schools of thought.
The most radical are the i. collapsologists, who argue that it is too late to be alarmed and that we must prepare for the catastrophe, which will occur by 2030 at the latest, and which will give rise to a return to "bio-regions". Next come the ii. reformist alarmists who are mobilizing to limit damage to biodiversity and control global warming: this current, in the spirit of the COP3, is however opposed neither to growth nor to the market economy. Then there is iii. revolutionary alarmism, which is prevalent among the current Green parties, which advocate a drastic economic decline. According to them, it must be imposed, even at the cost of a democratic setback. Jean-Marc Jancovici4 , the mastermind of the Shift Project, is still in favor of a transition facilitated by nuclear power, as he considers renewable energies to be false solutions.
After reviewing more minority trends, such as iv. ecofeminism, which in the 1970s in the United States suggested a link between the oppression of women and nature, v. the decolonials, which emerged in Latin America in the 1990s to link the ecological crisis to the colonial question, and vi. the vegans, who link health, the environment and animal suffering, the author gives a large place to vii. eco-modernism, which favors the decoupling of human activities concentrated in urban areas from the large wild spaces necessary to safeguard biodiversity. With the support of the circular economy, which would allow the complete recycling of all production, the most optimistic envisage the cohabitation of infinite growth and a goal of zero pollution.
In addition to the political views, there are initiatives to reshape capitalism from within. Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, positions himself as a proponent of the ESG trinity (Environment, Society and Governance): an investment filter that could contribute to the achievement of crucial goals for the sustainability of our planet. The latter is immediately contradicted by Tariq Fancy, stealthily (18 months) responsible for sustainable investment at BlackRock, who concludes that the divestments necessary for climate objectives (selling the oil sector) only increase the cost of capital of the bad contributors, without succeeding in excluding them, and that only banning the product itself would be virtuous: he argues that financiers buy a good conscience at a lower cost and appeals to politicians and eco-taxes.
This opens the door to a vast debate that must include the hunt for guilty "green washing "5, in favor of a more accurate measurement of the impact of our decisions, while accommodating our seemingly visceral need for growth, unless we find a way to repress it, as suggested by Sébastien Bohler6.
At the end of last year, Auris Gestion signed the United Nations' Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and is pleased to implement its own convictions through partnerships that enrich its own process, a range of funds that is gradually being revisited in light of this requirement, and a multi-management offering that keeps in mind the susceptibilities and objectives of each individual.
1 Vert espérance, ed. La Découverte, 1993
2 ed. de l'Observatoire, 2021
3 "Conference of the parties", member states of summits dedicated to ecology
4 French engineer committed to the fight against global warming, member of the High Council for the Climate since 2018
5 Greenwashing, defining a communication strategy aimed at pretending that a company has an environmentally responsible policy
6 « Le bug humain », by Sébastien Bohler: « pourquoi notre cerveau nous pousse à détruire la planète et comment l'en empêcher », ed. Robert Laffont, 2019.
