About

The High Council on Climate (HCC) is an French independent body tasked with issuing advice and recommendations to the French government on the delivery of public measures and policies aimed at reducing France's greenhouse gas emissions. Its purpose is to provide independent insight on government climate policy.

Our role

The HCC was established on 27 November 2018 by the President of the Republic and then by Decree in May 2019. Its members are chosen for their expertise in the fields of climate science, economics, agronomy and energy transition.

The High Council on Climate has two strategic priorities:

— We submit an annual report on France’s adherence to its greenhouse gas emissions reduction trajectory and on the effective delivery of measures and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop carbon sinks.

— We issue a report every five years on France’s low-carbon strategy and carbon budgets proposals, as well as on the greenhouse gas emissions reduction trajectory it committed to follow. It monitors the coherence of the low-carbon strategy with national policies and France's European and international pledges, in particular the Paris Agreement and the “carbon neutrality” goal by 2050.

To achieve these two objectives, the HCC considers the socio-economic impacts of the transition for households and businesses, key sovereignty issues and environmental impacts.

The HCC’s reports, based on analyses, assess current and planned policies and measures and outline recommendations and proposals to help France achieve its targets. These reports yield independent, factual and rigorous insight into France's greenhouse gas emission trends and its public policies. The HCC provides a long-term perspective and its publications are public. 

Our objectives

1. To have a significant impact on French policies and reduce GHG emissions

The High Council on Climate provides a long-term perspective, grounded in the most recent scientific knowledge. We aim to see our advices and recommendations directly reflected in key programmatic legislation, public policies and decisions adopted by French public actors at European, national, regional and local level.

2. Include adaptation to climate change

Climate change is taking a devastating toll on France and countries all over the world. In 2020, the HCC will already be considering the challenges associated with adaptation so as to recommend measures in this respect.

3. Communicate with all stakeholders

The energy transition will involve all sectors at all scales. This calls not only for cross-cutting policies but also greater communication. The HCC seeks to engage with all of the relevant stakeholders, public and private alike, at regular intervals.

4. Operate at international level

Limiting global warming and its consequences for populations and biodiversity requires global collaboration and action. Increasing numbers of countries are raising their national targets in the wake of the Paris Agreement and establishing independent scientific bodies to support their government. We are committed to working with all the advisory councils at international level, in a bid to share our national experiences and build a cross-border platform for dialogue.

France plays an instrumental role within the European Union. Our work also aims at helping the Government to put forward ambitious proposals at European level.

Members

Corinne Le Quere - High Council on Climate

Corinne Le Quere

Chair

Corinne Le Quéré (Chair) is a French-Canadian climate scientist. She is a Royal Society Research Professor of Climate Change Science at the University of East Anglia. She conducts research on the interactions between climate change and the carbon cycle, including the drivers of human emissions and carbon sinks. She instigated and oversees the 'Global Carbon Budget', an annual update of global emissions to inform global climate policies. She was previously Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (2011-2018) and has been on the author team of Assessment Reports for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She is a Fellow of the UK's Royal Society and member of the Committee on Climate Change, which provides the British Government with policy-relevant advice in the area of climate change.

Michel Colombier - High Council on Climate

Michel Colombier

Michel Colombier is Scientific Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), Director of the Energy and Environment Prospective Engineering Club (CLIP) and Associate Professor at Sciences Po Paris.
As an engineer and economist, he has developed extensive operational expertise in the field of energy and related aspects of environment. He taught at the Universities of Bordeaux 1 (science), Paris-Nanterre (economics) and Paris-Saclay (energy). He was previously Director General of International Consulting on Energy (ICE); Advisor to the French Minister of Energy; Head of the “Strategy and Evaluation” Department at the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME); and Programme Director for the Portuguese Ministry of Environment and Energy Transition. He has served as a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM). He was also a negotiator in the UNFCCC process and member of the Board of Climate Strategies (London). He also chaired the French Expert Committee for the Energy Transition (CETE).

Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier - High Council on Climate

Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier

Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier is Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Deputy Director of the Centre for the Sociology of Organizations (CSO), a joint research unit affiliated with Sciences Po and the CNRS. She conducts a research programme in the field of economic sociology, specifically on the social construction of consumer behaviour by analysing the role of social movements, public policy and commercial mechanisms. Author of several scientific publications, she has notably published the second edition of "La consommation engagée", co-authored "Le biais comportementaliste" in 2018 and was the lead author of "Gouverner les conduites " in 2016, published with Presses de Sciences Po. She holds a PhD in sociology from the École des Mines in Paris.

Alain Grandjean - High Council on Climate

Alain Grandjean

Graduate of the École polytechnique and Ensae with a PhD in environmental economics, Alain Grandjean is the co-founder and member of Carbone 4, an independent consulting firm specialising in low carbon strategy. He is a Scientific Committee member at the Fondation Nicolas Hulot. In 2013, he chaired the Expert Committee for the National Debate on the Energy Transition (DNTE). With Pascal Canfin, he co-authored the report "To mobilize the funding for the climate", presented to the President of the Republic in 2015. With Gérard Mestrallet and Pascal Canfin, he co-authored a report on carbon pricing, presented to the COP21 Chair in 2016. He has also co-authored several books and runs a blog called "Chroniques de l’anthropocène".

Marion Guillou - High Council on Climate

Marion Guillou

Marion Guillou is a State Advisor on special service and member of national and international boards of directors (French Institute of International Relations/IFRI, Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture/CIAT). She is also an administrator in private companies and NGOs. Previously a researcher, she chaired the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) (2004-2012) and the Board of the École polytechnique (2008- 2013), and held the positions of Executive Director of INRA (2000-2004) and General Director for Food (1996-2000). She founded the European initiative on agriculture, food security and climate change (JPI-FACCE).

Céline Guivarch - High Council on Climate

Céline Guivarch

Céline Guivarch is a research director at the École des Ponts and economist at the International Centre for Research on the Environment and Development (CIRED). Her work focuses on the economic impacts of climate change and trajectories for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It has informed the analysis of the physical and economic components of these trajectories, the processing of uncertainty in models and scenarios, and decision-making in situations of uncertainty. She is one of the authors of the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report.

Jean-Marc Jancovici  - High Council on Climate

Jean-Marc Jancovici

Jean-Marc Jancovici has been working in the field of climate science since the early 2000s. He is a founding partner of Carbone 4, an independent consulting firm specialising in low carbon strategy. He is also the founder and chair of The Shift Project (a non-profit organisation founded in 2010, which advocates the proactive shift to a post-carbon economy) and Professor at Mines ParisTech since 2008. Since 2000, he has also been involved in a range of outreach initiatives aimed at explaining the energy and climate to the public. His expertise is in the physical analysis of the economy, energy accounting (he is the lead author of the GHG accounting method, Bilan Carbone®) and energy supply. He is a graduate of the École polytechnique and Télécom ParisTech.

Benoît Leguet - High Council on Climate

Benoît Leguet

Benoît Leguet is Managing Director of the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE), the think tank on the economy of the energy transition founded by Caisse des Dépôts and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD). Since 2002, Benoît has been advising public and private decision-makers on the transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy. He teaches economics of climate change for various Master- and Doctorate-level programmes. He is also a member of several expert groups, including the High Council on Climate, Economic Council for Sustainable Development (CEDD) and Scientific Committee of the GoodPlanet Foundation. Benoît Leguet is an engineering graduate of the École polytechnique and ENSTA ParisTech, and has a Master's degree in the economics of sustainable development, energy and the environment from the University of Paris X-AgroParisTech-École polytechnique.

Valérie Masson-Delmotte - High Council on Climate

Valérie Masson-Delmotte

Valérie Masson-Delmotte is a researcher in climate science (Research Director at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission/CEA) at the Laboratory for Climate Science and the Environment at the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, based at the University of Paris Saclay. She has co-chaired the IPCC's Working Group I on the physical scientific basis of the climate system and climate change since 2015.

Katheline Schubert - High Council on Climate

Katheline Schubert

Jean-François Soussana is a Research Director and Vice-President at France's National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), where he was previously Scientific Director for the Environment and is now in charge of international research policy. He is an agricultural engineer and managed a research laboratory on global change and ecosystems. He has been an IPCC lead author since 1998 and coordinates a number of national and European research projects, as well as international programmes on agriculture, soil and climate change. A widely cited researcher (2018), he has published over 150 articles in international science journals. In 2007, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the authors of the IPCC, and has received an array of national and international awards. He holds a PhD in plant physiology.

Jean-Francois Soussana  - High Council on Climate

Jean-Francois Soussana

Laurence Tubiana is President and executive director of the European Climate Foundation (ECF), chairs the Board of Directors of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and is a Professor at Sciences Po Paris. Before joining the ECF, Laurence Tubiana was an Ambassador for international negotiations on climate change and Special Representative for COP21 and, as such, a chief architect of the Paris Agreement. Following COP21, she was appointed High Level Champion for climate action. Laurence Tubiana has also held a range of academic and university positions, including at Sciences Po and as Professor of International Relations at Columbia University in New York City. In 2002 she founded the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), that she ran until 2014.

Laurence Tubiana  - High Council on Climate

Laurence Tubiana

Laurence Tubiana is CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and a Professor at Sciences Po, Paris. She previously chaired the Board of Governors at the French Development Agency (AFD), as well as the Board at Expertise France (The French public agency for international technical assistance). Before joining the ECF, Laurence was France’s Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21, and as such a key architect of the landmark Paris Agreement. Following COP21 and through COP22, she was appointed UN High-Level Champion for climate action.