By RFI English
Conversations with contemporary analysts, commentators and icons about their personal relationship with France, the French and how their lives have been influenced by Gallic culture. Paris Perspect
... more
The podcast currently has 42 episodes available.
Paris Perspective looks at the battlefield of the upcoming European elections, where the centrist majority must navigate the rocky terrain of a younger electorate that's being courted by the far right.
While the polls have been described as a time of reckoning for Europe given the rise of the far right, it's unlikely the centrist conservative majority will be knocked off pole position.
The main battle for EU seats will, nevertheless, be fought between centrists and populists.
Turnout for European elections has waned since the first vote took place in 1979. The 2019 polls bucked this trend by breaking the 50 percent turnout threshold for the first time and 20 years.
In a post-Covid, economically rattled EU with two wars on its doorstep, indicators point to a significant rise in interest among Europeans in the upcoming June ballot.
The latest survey carried out by the European Parliament indicates that a record turnout of 68 percent could be expected.
Christine Verger, vice president of the Jacques Delors Institute in Paris, acknowledges the heightened interest, attributing the 2019 surge to younger people's engagement on environmental issues.
"The protection of the environment and the fight against climate change resonated strongly with the youth, who viewed the European level as the appropriate platform for addressing such global challenges," she told RFI.
The EU's environmental concerns – once seen as a strong point – are also now viewed with scepticism. Agricultural protesters, in particular, accuse the bloc of creating problems rather than solutions.
Security in EuropeVerger says wider global security issues may instil a sense of fear among EU citizens, potentially impacting voter turnout and sentiment.
So how will young people react to these new challenges in June?
"This is very difficult to say, now that there are other issues which may justify the rise of participation and some positive views [regarding] the European Union. It's linked to the state of the world and the wars in Ukraine in the Middle East," she explains.
"This situation, and those new challenges, may lead many people in the EU towards a feeling of protection."
Verger believes new challenges such as immigration and identity issues may reshape young people's priorities as the battle between centrists and populists intensifies.
There has a drive to encourage young voters using the Paris metro to take an interest in the workings of the European Union as a force for good.
But could this backfire, with Eurosceptic and populist parties actually mobilising the youth vote in their favour?
"The main problem with the European election is that it's [actually] 27 national elections," Verger says.
Past efforts to enhance European unity, such as transnational lists and political families appointing pan-European candidates, hasn't worked so well, says Verger.
"This is because national governments and national parliaments are not inclined to accept European solutions for their campaigns," she says.
"They are still very attached to their national environment ... So in each country each situation is different."
Verger cites France as an example: "You have the Rassemblement National, but in 2019 they got a very good score – they have 23 members in the European Parliament, they may get a few more – but this will not have an influence on the result of the European elections."
Populists or radicals?Concerns about the rise of far-right and populist parties has opened discussion on the political groups within the European Parliament.
Given the complexities of alliances and compromises between the parties, even if the far-right groups gain more seats, their differing views and lack of unity mean it's unlikely they will form a credible alternative.
Then there is confusion, Verger says, between what are called "populist" parties and "radical" parties.
"They are very different – and that's why they have difficulties. They don't share the same opinions on many issues, for instance, in relation to Russia and the position on the war in Ukraine," she says.
"You have the ID Group – Identity and Democracy – which is composed of two main parties, the French Rassemblement National and the German AfD [Alternative für Deutschland]
"In Germany, an AfD representative declared last weekend that there could be a referendum in Germany on leaving the European Union – what they call the Dexit – and the Rassemblement National in France is not at all in favour of leaving the European Union."
Another right-wing political group, the ECR Group – European Conservatives and Reformists – was led by the British Conservatives before Brexit.
Now the UK has left the EU, the main group driving the ECR is Poland's PiS – the Law and Justice party – which recently lost elections in Poland.
"We don't know how they are going to evolve," Verger says.
"The far right and the populist radical parties have no chance to build a majority by themselves because in the European Parliament, everything is based on alliances and compromises."
While acknowledging the powerful emotional tactics employed by populists, Verger says that mainstream parties can effectively counter them through strategic communication.
EU repercussions for France 2027Meanwhile, here in France, the 2024 European elections are seen by many as a precursor to the 2027 presidential elections, where a battle between President Emmanuel Macron's successor and the National Rally's Marine Le Pen looks almost certain.
Past EU elections have impacted French politics, such as in 1994 when the poor EU election performance of the Socialists led by Michel Rocard ruled him out as a contender for the French presidency.
The evolution of French national politics over the next three years – particularly the shift to the right in Macron's party and the rise of the National Rally – adds another layer to the complex dynamics that lie ahead.
Macron's has recently appointed 34-year-old Gabriel Attal as prime minister, while the National Rally have 28 year-old Jordan Bardella at the helm to reach out to the younger generation.
It's the interplay between European and national dynamics that will shape the narrative of the elections in June, says Verger.
"European issues will certainly play a role in the elections ... but Bardella will try to make [the June polls] a 100 percent national election," she says.
"The other parties – Renaissance and the Socialist Party – will try to make it as European as possible, in order to deconstruct it from the national context and try to show the positive aspects of the European Union for ordinary citizens."
In this edition of Paris Perspective, we look at the recent conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the ethnic cleansing of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and France's influence in the Caucasus.
At the beginning of November, Germany insisted that European mediation was the best option for Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach a lasting peace agreement.
The Caucasus neighbours have been locked in a decades-long conflict for control of Azerbaijan's Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Baku reclaimed in a lightning offensive in September.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have held several rounds of peace talks under EU mediation and both leaders have said a peace treaty could be signed in the coming months.
However, last month, Aliyev refused to attend a round of peace talks with Pashinyan in the Spanish city of Granada, over what he said was France's "biased position".
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been scheduled to join European Council President Charles Michel as mediators at those talks.
So far, there has been no visible progress in EU efforts to organise a fresh round of negotiations.
From a brutal war in 1988 to the 2020 conflict in which over 6,000 people were killed in 6 weeks of fighting what lies behind the animosity between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave?
For Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center think-tank based in the Armenian capital Yerevan, the hostile reationship between Yerevan and Baku is very much a construct of Soviet-era political machinations.
"Nagorno-Karabakh has historically been an Armenian populated region that has been very much used as a pawn by Moscow. It was used by the Soviet Union to actually divide and rule in terms of keeping-up a contentious potential conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan," he explains.
After seven decades of Soviet rule, there was an eruption of violence even before the implosion of the USSR.
"The outbreak of violence was largely due to the onset of Gorbachev's reforms – Glasnost, Perestroika, the new degree of openness and examining taboos.
"What we saw was the eruption of nationalism that occurred between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," says Giragosian.
The conflict was also unique at the time, as it was the first to erupt within the borders of the Soviet Union.
"During the Gorbachev period," he explains, "it was especially significant because the conflict tended to distort the development of independent Armenia and Azerbaijan, in terms of conflict economics and the fact that [they] were already locked in war upon gaining independence."
Azeri assertion, Armenian arroganceFast-forward to November 2020, and the two countries agreed to end a spike in hostilities that killed thousands over a six week period, signing a Russian-brokered peace agreement where Armenia – the loser – agreed to give up control of over 20 percent of territory captured by Azerbaijan.
Two thousand Russian peacekeepers were then deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh, but the most recent Azeri offensive against Armenian separatists in the enclave revealed the failure of Russia's mission to the region.
"The war of 2020 was especially significant for several reasons," Giragosian explains. "First, it marked the emergence of a genuine military capacity by Azerbaijan to not only defend itself but to retake lost territory. It was also significant because it marked an end to years of Armenian arrogance and complacency."
Giragosian blames both sides for too many missed opportunities for compromise.
"Armenia, in many ways, was overly self-confident. But the most important casualty from 2020 was not the loss of territory, nor the loss of life, it was the demise of deterrence," he states.
"This ushered in a new period of insecurity on the ground, but for the Russian position, the Russians drafted and imposed their own ceasefire on both countries, and then failed to be able to uphold the terms. This is why Azerbaijan imposed a nine month blockade [on the enclave] and effectively seized control of Nagorno-Karabakh."
But for the think-tank director, it's the humiliation and weakness of the Russian peacekeepers that's most interesting – "Azerbaijan has become very good at challenging and defying the Kremlin," he tells Paris Perspective.
Recent images coming out of Nagorno-Karabakh drew many comparisons with the 1915 Armenian genocide, bringing to the fore the question of national identity as residents of the enclave are defacto Azerbaijani citizens.
Baku maintains that the people of “Artsakh” or the Armenian population of Karabakh have the same rights as Azeris, but what is the reality on the ground?
"First of all, even prior to the most recent escalation, there was little faith and no confidence in Azerbaijani promises, largely because of the historical record.
"During the Gorbachev period through to the 90s, there were a number of anti-Armenian massacres and egregious human rights violations. The situation has only gotten worse in recent years," Giragosian underlines.
What was remarkable about the September 2023 conflict was the speed and success of the Azerbaijani military offensive and how easy it was for them to drive out the Armenian population.
So, was Azerbaijan's military objective to purge the enclave of all Armenians?
"Yes," says Giragosian, "but what was interesting is their real objective was to have a protracted period [of conflict] for domestic political dividends within Azerbaijan."
Baku essentially expected a longer, protracted campaign "to maintain power that has a lack of legitimacy".
One could almost say that, politically, they were the victim of their own success, but "with dangerously high expectations," Giragosian adds.
But what he finds interesting about the exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh – where the Armenian population was forced to leave with little more than they could pack into their cars – is that the refugees aren't looking to rebuild their lives in their ethnic homeland.
"Coming to Armenia, the core population of the last remnants of 100,000 Armenians are not necessarily keen to stay in Armenia. Many are now looking to go to Russia or European countries, because many of the Armenians from Karabakh have never lived in Armenia," Giragosian points out.
"I moved to Armenia over 15 years ago, and I'm as alien or foreign to the local Armenian experience as they are. And that's something we failed to understand," he underlines.
The quest for lasting peaceThere is a massive Armenian diaspora in France, and Paris recently marked the 20th anniversary of its recognition of the genocide committed by the “Young Turk” administration in 1915. But in light of the recent conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, has France done enough to support Armenia and counter its isolation in the region?
Giragosian believes Paris has stepped up to the mark.
"To be fair, French engagement has actually exceeded expectations. But at the same time, it's the EU's engagement that's both more significant and more effective than simple French actions."
He outlines that while President Macron's commitment to Armenia is important, a wider European context is necessary for sustaining the resilience of Armenia.
"The French will be announcing a package of military assistance to Armenia in the coming weeks, designed to provide a defensive capacity for Armenia. But it's the EU's engagement [that is important] because they're not trying to mediate the conflict, they are simply trying to facilitate a negotiated peace treaty.
"My worry is the day after and what is in store to ensure a lasting durable peace. That remains an open question and one in which France – within the EU – can actually work toward," Giragosian says.
So when the peace talks really do get in motion, what will work in Armenia's favour and what kind of end game will create a lasting peace?
"Let me be provocative," Giragosian quips. "I think the real challenge now is less the peace treaty, and more Russia, for Armenia.
"If we look at the peace treaty – the specific elements – Nagorno-Karabakh is no longer an issue," he says.
Border demarcation, the restoration of trade and transport, the opening of road and railway links are all significant aspects of a bilateral peace agreement – which are positive in terms of moving beyond conflict – but the real challenge is Russia.
"In terms of Armenia now seeking greater room to manoeuvre, we're not seeking to replace Russia [as an ally], but we're seeking to offset Russia. For Armenia, Russia has emerged as a more serious challenge as an unreliable, so-called partner," Giragosian concludes.
Watch the full video here.
Written, produced and presented by David Coffey.
Recorded by Cécile Pompeani and Nicolas Doreau
Edited by Erwan Rome
Full Interview: France, the Caucasus and the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh – Richard Giragosian
This edition of Paris Perspective looks at the concept of Françafrique and the collapse of French influence in its former colonies. What have been the catalysts for the successive coup d’états in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger and Gabon over the past three years?
The domino effect of Sahel states falling into the hands of military juntas over the past three years has been particularly alarming to behold from a French perspective.
The takeovers have essentially followed the same playbook: France is condemned as an economic predator, military cooperation in the fight against jihadists is suspended, defence agreements with Paris are ripped up and French media outlets such as RFI and France 24 are shut down.
Almost identical scenes have played out at French embassies and military bases, with protesters denouncing French neo-colonialism and calling for the withdrawal of French troops. Russian flags have been conspicuous in the crowds.
Paris insists that the old Françafrique method of meddling in African affairs "died a long time ago". If this is true, where is the anti-French sentiment stemming from?
The legacy of "Françafrique"To understand the present, one must look at the direct influence of France’s colonial administration across African countries, which metamorphosed into an infamous political old-boys club in the wake of independence in the 1950s and 60s.
Georja Calvin-Smith, producer and presenter of France 24's flagship "Eye on Africa" political magazine is quick to agree that the concept of Françafrique in the immediate post-colonial period was essentially born out of the former rulers' "right of entitlement".
"I think Françafrique is best characterised from an African perspective as 'being done dirty' – being taken advantage of. That doesn't necessarily mean that there weren't African actors within the relationship that didn't benefit from it, but they were generally at the top of the social hierarchy...depending on what country you're talking about," she tells Paris Perspective.
Calvin-Smith underlines that post-colonial movers and shakers were essentially intermediaries between Paris and African capitals, either helping to secure permanent mining rights at rock bottom prices or adjusting policy ambitions for the benefit of France.
"They're seen as working with the former colonial power," she explains "to the disadvantage of the indigenous population."
"Ultimately, for decades, French and European economies have been propped up by the use and reliance on African resources," coupled with amenable African leaders she says.
Although French President Emmanuel Macron has been one of the most progressive French leaders in terms of trying to address some of the resentment over the legacy of Françafrique, Calvin-Smith says it doesn't matter: "You can say it doesn't exist, but those relationships still exist."
Rejection of 'paternalism'From the outset, Françafrique defined the post-colonial era. African resources flowed into French coffers, in exchange for a degree of political and financial stability in the fledgling independent nations.
"And that is the problem," the France 24 journalist continues, "because as much as we're trying to make it a binary situation about who got the most out of it ... there have been some developments in post-colonialism that can be measured as being better than others.
"That's the whole reason there is resentment. As much as we talk about political, sociological, even economic models, we're forgetting that there are real people at the heart of this."
If people feel belittled, side-lined and undermined by a paternalistic state, then this will likely shape their opinion.
Paris Perspective #15: The future history of Jihad - Wassim Nasr
However, France's role in "guiding" African states through the independence years appears to have been rejected outright by a generation who are coming to terms with new political realities and are feeling neglected.
A new generation of Africans has emerged, one with access to information – and disinformation – in equal measure.
"By ignoring young people, if you ignore investment, and the intention to create the institutions needed to have a functioning society, then – by definition – you're ignoring the young people along with everybody else," Calvin-Smith points out.
It's also important to remember that the coups across West Africa are not all the same, she says, but rather shaped by different political and economic contexts.
"It doesn't mean that the resentment of those populations can't be exploited by actors who are taking advantage of this very valid resentment about France – or very valid concerns about security, or lack of opportunity – for their own political gains or just to take power.
"When we look at a lot of these countries – they're some of the poorest in the world – but also the richest in terms of resources. That disparity does not go unnoticed," she insists.
ECOWAS and the putschist playbookOne common point among the coup d'états is that "none of these countries has returned to democracy since 2020," Calvin-Smith wryly points out.
A pattern has emerged, she observes: "Takeover quickly, check your back. When it comes to the international community, engage in some chats. Say that you will hold an election and then postpone the election".
For its part, the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) has responded invariably with sanctions, exclusion or in some cases, a threat of military intervention to ensure a return to democratic process.
Whatever the political outcome and transition of former French colonies back to democracy, France has seen its influence and credibility seriously damaged by the seismic events that have swept its traditional stomping ground over the past three years.
And all on President Macron’s watch.
Can we expect France and French diplomacy to regain its foothold in Francophone Africa? Will the reach of French influence in former colonies ever be the same?
For Georja Calvin-Smith, it's "no". This page of history has definitively been turned.
Watch the full video here.
Written, produced and presented by David Coffey.
Recorded by Hadrien Touraud and Erwan Rome
Georja Calvin-Smith is the producer and presenter of France 24's political magazine "Eye on Africa".
In this edition of Paris Perspective, we look at energy transition, the future of France’s atomic energy grid and President Emmanuel Macron’s political promise of a nuclear renaissance.
One year ago, as President Macron was readying himself for the campaign trail that would lead to his re-election, he gave an address in the city of Belfort – an historically industrial town in eastern France – extolling the policies of a nuclear renaissance in France and an eventual €60 billion investment towards the building of six new EPR reactors.
Interestingly, this great leap forward towards energy sustainability and self-reliance came before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which sparked a Europe-wide energy crisis as the flow of Russian gas into the continent was essentially cut off.
For Yves Marignac, award-winning nuclear safety expert with the négaWatt Association, Macron's speech was less a campaign rally, more a political statement of intent by an incumbent president.
"He turned his back on his promises from the previous campaign when he said he would stick to the objective of reducing French dependency on nuclear power," says Marignac, whose group advocates for energy sufficiency, efficiency and the use of renewable sources.
"The energy crisis is more acute in France because of the failure of the nuclear sector ... The conclusion that has been given is that we need more nuclear power and not less, which is a paradox."
'Evidence of failure'According to Marignac, France's nuclear industry is in such bad shape that French safety authorities aren't convinced it can meet the objectives set by the president in a safe way.
"We are faced with evidence of failure – from an energy point of view – and an industrial point of view. But the decision is that we need more nuclear energy and that is what President Macron said.
"So we are bracing for new reactors, we are bracing for the life extension [of old reactors] that won't come in the short term. Life extension is something that will change the trajectory [of nuclear power] between the 2030s and 2040s and the new reactors won't come in line before 2035 at the very earliest," Marignac insists.
The nuclear specialist also laments the fact that Macron's policy speech is driving France away from short-term priorities like sufficiency and renewables that could be delivered much faster.
"The government changed its mind [on energy efficiency] last year due to the energy crisis – but just two years ago, Macron was comparing energy efficiency to Amish societies and discarded any policy of that kind," Marignac explains.
Earlier this month Macron caused a stir with French opposition parties after convening his advisory council on nuclear policy while a public debate on the future of France’s energy production is ongoing, undercutting civic discussion on energy transition and how to achieve carbon neutrality.
So for the French government, is an open forum on the transition away from conventional energy production purely cosmetic?
"It is and unfortunately that's not new," says Marignac. "I often say that the French nuclear sector is too weak to dare to commit to a real democratic debate, but too strong to have to do it. We’ve seen that many times for decades and we see it again."
He believes that everything is stacked against the success of Macron's "nuclear renaissance plan", because France's nuclear industry is crippled.
Even so, warnings that France would face power outages and electricity rationing over the winter never came to pass. Indeed Macron scoffed at the idea of power cuts, rejecting such fears as "absurd".
Yet despite the rickety state of France's nuclear power stations and previous scepticism towards energy sufficiency, it would appear that the message of being more frugal with power is getting through to the general population.
Politicians dragging their heels?So are the French getting the bigger picture, although France itself has failed to reach its own targets on the development of renewable energy within the Cop21 Paris Climate Accord?
According to Marignac, warmer weather has obviously played a part.
"There was a ten percent reduction in gas and electricity consumption, but you have to take into account the [milder] climate," he points out.
But there is a catch: "Part of it came from 'unchosen sufficiency', like people not being able to pay for the energy anymore."
More encouragingly, he says, "there was also a clear sign of positive sufficiency with people choosing to turn the heating down a bit, to drive less when it comes to fuel and to make small changes.
"I think this shows that when people understand that we are faced with this kind of structural crisis – be it climate urgency, energy security or sovereignty issues – they understand the interests and the benefits from sufficiency.
"I think this short-term experience really showed that people are much more open to make changes in consumption patterns than policymakers tend to think.
"When talking to people in the government or administration, I often have the feeling that they are lagging behind. The population's understanding of the kind of systemic change that we need to implement will provide a lot of benefits," Marignac concludes.
So despite the promise of a renaissance for France's nuclear energy sector, it is the general public who are adapting faster to energy sustainability in a post-atomic world.
Watch the full video here.
Written, produced and presented by David Coffey.
Recorded and edited by Vincent Pora.
Yves Marignac, award-winning nuclear safety expert and head of the Nuclear and Fossil Energies Unit of the négaWatt Association.
In this edition of Paris Perspective, we delve into the roller-coaster world of cryptocurrencies, the Wild West of the Web3 revolution, and ask what we can expect in the brave new world of unregulated trading in virtual money.
Last year was a tough one for cryptocurrencies.
Looking at how decentralised financial markets performed over the last 12 months was like watching the electrocardiogram of a patient being treated for amphetamine addiction.
The past year witnessed the collapse of seven cryptocurrency platforms, the most notorious leading to the bankruptcy of FTX and the arrest of its 30-year-old founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.
And there's the problem of getting your head around how cryptocurrencies work.
Without going into the nuts and bolts of the techniques that allow people to buy, sell or trade virtual cash online – the bottom line is that, unlike traditional currencies that are underwritten by national governments, cryptos circulate without a monetary authority or central bank.
Casino Digitale: The crypto El DoradoFor Raphaël Bloch, co-founder and editor-in-chief of “The Big Whale,” a Paris-based publication dedicated to decrypting cryptos, these are exciting times, especially for the post-Millennial generation who never knew a world without the internet.
Bloch and magazine co-founder Grégory Raymond believe people need to be enabled to understand what's happening in the digital world.
"Web3 is a big subject. We're talking about Bitcoin, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchains."
OK. Clear as crystal so far?
Again, without going into the nitty-gritty of how these new financial tools actually function – as there are plenty of websites out there that can explain it better than I – looking into the world of crypto is reminiscent of Las Vegas: casinos with distinct, non-transferable chips, serenading gamblers into competing establishments in a desert city that sprung out of nowhere, exploiting unregulated gambling laws.
Surely that is a fair comparison?
"For six or seven years," says Bloch, "that was the case, going back to 2016 or 2017.
"But now, it's not a casino or Las Vegas." Cryptocurrencies do create a new space with no rules, but countries and governments are working on legislation.
"You also have legitimate investors and start-up companies in Europe – you have a lot of unicorns. It's not a casino any more."
2022: Annus horribilus for cryptocurrencyYet 2022 underlined that investing in cryptos does not guarantee success for everyone.
When FTX hit a brick wall with liquidity issues in November 2022 and subsequently collapsed, there were consequences for all the 22,000 cryptos in circulation. Values plummeted.
But that was because "FTX was a scam," Bloch explains. "It had an impact on the market, but that was only because of one man's fraud.
"Obviously, it had an impact on other companies, but people know that it was just a matter of fraud. They didn't leave the market, they just sold part of their investments.
"And in the next two or three years, we're going to see a bull market again," Bloch asserts.
Who can you trust?So is there a personality profile of people who "roll the dice" at the crypto table?
"We have almost 20,000 subscribers," says the co-founder of The Big Whale.
"It's mostly the young generation – under 35. But it's also white collar people who want to invest their money in the crypto ecosystem and in Web3 technology."
It's mostly men, but Bloch says more women are getting involved.
However, with the collapse on seven cryptos in 2022 and the industry still reeling from the ripple effect on the unregulated market environment, any newcomer would be forgiven for asking a very simple question: Who can you trust?
"It's really good question. We know that in the crypto space, it's really hard to know who you can rely on. There are so many companies that are telling people on Twitter and social networks that they shouldn't miss 'the next big thing' and that's why we launched The Big Whale – not to be a sheriff in the Far-West, but to give neutral and accurate info on projects, exchanges and companies," Bloch explains.
Nothing to do with 'Moby Dick'So what is the relevance of naming his company "The Big Whale"? Anything to do with Captain Ahab and an elusive, white cetacean as written by Herman Melville?
"No," Bloch laughs.
"We decided to choose 'The Big Whale' for several reasons. The first is that we usually hear that Web3 is like a big ocean of information and people want to understand what's going on in this big ocean ... and because we want to play a big part in that ocean.
"The second is that a whale – in the crypto market – is like a big financial investor. So it's like a gimmick for crypto fans.
"The third one: a whale is a big, carbon-neutral organism – equal to a forest, something like 1,000 trees – so it outlines that Web3 needs to be more ecological," Bloch concludes.
It is quite easy to forget how far we have come since Web 1.0 in the 1990s and even the concept of personally uploading and streaming filmed material in a matter of seconds, only came to the fore in the last decade. So if Web3, blockchains and anything "non-fungible" seem like alien concepts today, it would appear that it's only a matter of time before they become a mainstream part of our daily lives.
Watch the full video here.
Written, produced and presented by David Coffey
Recorded and edited by Vincent Pora.
Raphaël Bloch is co-founder and editor-in-chief of “The Big Whale” – a Paris-based publication dedicated to cryptocurrency, blockchains and Web3 technology.
This edition of Paris Perspective looks at the legacy of the Kyoto Protocol on the 25th anniversary of what was, in effect, the first legally binding international agreement on reducing greenhouse gases.
On 11 December 1997, the first international agreement of its kind – the Kyoto Protocol – was signed.
It aimed to cut the amout of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and, in doing so, reduce the number of extreme weather events that are growing in frequency every year.
The agreement mandated 37 industrialised countries and the European Community, made up of 15 nations at the time of the Kyoto negotiations, to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
It also exempted more than 100 developing countries, including China and India, from the mandatory reductions.
Twenty-five years on, how effective has the protocol been? Have successive Cop summits succeeded? Have the promises by rich nations to reduce emissions had any impact on global warming? Will their actions prevent temperatures rising by 1.5°C by the end of the century?
At the Cop27 meeting in Sharm El Sheikh in November 2022, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for an end to the "toxic cover-up" by companies who claim to be “carbon net zero”.
In this respect he cited companies that have invested in fossil fuel exploration and exploitation, companies whose actions have resulted in deforestation, and/or those companies that have offset emissions instead of reducing them in a practice known as ‘greenwashing’.
He descirbed this expansion of fossil fuel exploitation as "reprehensible" and noted that it could "push our world over the climate cliff".
From 'catastrophe' to 'hope'Although the Kyoto Protocol only entered into effect in 2005, it laid the foundations for the historic 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change at Cop21.
For now, at least, there has been a lot of goodwill, says Stephan Savarese, CEO of TechnoCarbon, a company that is developing low-carbon building materials to replace steel and concrete.
In 2021, after the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, for example, a UN panel got to work on drawing a "red line" around greenwashing and net zero targets from companies, cities and regions.
Everybody wants to be part of the transition process that is designed to keep warming below 1.5°C by the end of this century by adopting net-zero strategies, Savarese told RFI English.
Any rise beyound that and the planet enters a situation "where we don't know what will happen, but [believe it will] probably [result in] catastrophic climate change," he said.
One key aspect in uniting the world in tackling climate change is communication, says Savarese.
"If we want to move away from that fear of catastrophic climate change, we need to give people hope. We need to start defining the solutions," he says
If people think it's too late to avoid catastrophe, that sends out a "really bad message", he adds.
"We have a choice. And that choice is not to choose extinction."
Climate transitionThe first target set by the Kyoto Protocol was to reduce emmissions, but data as to whether it has been a success or not depends on when the data is being presented.
"The answer is probably yes. And probably no.We will have a few years where the emissions will go up and go down. We have the goodwill, but we haven't got our act together. The big focus over the next few years, is how do we get our act together?" Savarese explains.
Loss and Damage Agreement
However, one of the most positive and progressive deals to come out of the Cop27 meeting in Egypt is the Loss and Damage agreement
It is designed to compensate vulnerable countries whose future is directly affected by climate change, such as the Seychelles and island nations in the South Pacific.
"[The fund] should be €100 billion per year ... [but] that's just a fraction of the global effort to achieve climate transition, which is estimated to be over €1,200 billion per year ... [and] we haven't even done that. So of course, the acts are far behind the declaration. But at least we have the declaration," says Savarese.
Even with landmark agreements such as Kyoto in 1997 and the more recent Paris agreement which went into force in November 2016 , it has also become clear that small actions by companies and groups - such as Savarese's TechnoCarbon - could have a greater impact on mitigating climate change sector by sector.
Small acts for climate change
It raises the the question as to whether every gesture that aims to reduce our carbon footprint – from the household, to the office, to the factory floor – has an impact, in the global scheme of things?
"Yes," Savarese says. "We are millions of people working on this now. And this is the first achievement,[notably] mobilising millions of people [to act in response to] climate transition.
"Everyone at their level has their way of acting on that," Savarese concludes.
Watch the full video here.
Written, produced and presented by David Coffey
Recorded and edited by Vincent Pora and Nicolas Doreau
Stephan Savarese is the CEO of TechnoCarbon, a Paris-based company that is developing low-carbon building materials to replace steel and concrete.
This edition of Paris Perspective looks at the outcome of the US midterm elections, asking why a Republican "red wave" failed to emerge, and examining the potential of American socialism ahead of the 2024 presidential face-off.
In the United States, midterm elections are seen as a referendum on how the incumbent's administration is doing, and it is rare that a sitting president comes out unscathed.
By the end of polling on 8 November, it became apparent that a Republican "red wave" – one that would secure right-wing control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives – had failed to materialise.
As it stands, the Democrats control the Senate while the Republicans have the House of Representatives – but only by the slimmest of margins in either case.
So, what does this knife-edge scenario mean for the next two years of President Joe Biden's mandate?
For Max Dunitz, an activist with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Republican control over the House of Representatives could spell havoc.
The position of Speaker will be hotly contested in the wake of Nancy Pelosi's departure after two decades at the heart of lower house debate, says Max Dunitz. "And we could expect plenty of investigations into the Biden administration," he tells RFI.
"There will be deadlock," he says, especially if "the Judiciary Committee is split evenly between the two parties." That will slow down the process of confirming judges and other presidential appointees.
Dunitz recognises that the Democratic majority in the Senate will be of some help in ensuring that administration nominees do get appointed.
While it wasn't a resounding endorsement of Biden's government, the vote revealed cracks in former president Donald Trump's appeal to the conservative electorate, as many of the inexperienced wannabes endorsed by Trump failed in their bid to join the big league on Capitol Hill.
Although the results of the US midterms have dealt a significant blow to Trump's re-election bid in 2024, the setback did not stop the billionaire from declaring his intentions to run earlier this week.
The clear winner in the Republican camp was Ron DeSantis, who was re-elected as Governor of Florida with a 20-point margin, a turbo boost for the ultra-conservative politician's intention to run for the Republican party's nomination for president.
Now there is a real challenger to Trump's vice-like grip on the GOP, we can expect a broader, more boisterous field in the US primaries.
"There's going to be a tough fight for the nomination," says Dunitz, but he adds that "there's not a big distinction between DeSantis and Trump in terms of policy."
Of course, there are many who believe DeSantis to be more dangerous than Trump.
"He does pick fights [with Democrats] ... he fired a prosecutor in the Tampa Bay area who wouldn't prosecute doctors who provide abortion care," Dunitz notes.
"This would suggest that he would be very focused on using his power to dismantle a lot of the competent administrative [structures] and use it for partisan aims."
Biden's midterm reportAlthough the current administration is perceived as "liberal" in comparison to the rough-shod populism of the previous president's policies, how do people on the American left think Biden has done since taking office in January 2021?
Dunitz, whose group has backed Vermont senator Bernie Sanders for president in the past, says that Biden's policy of full employment has been a win for the administration.
"People have been very sour about the economy in the news media. But when you actually look at the polls, a lot of people are pretty optimistic about their own personal financial situation," Dunitz believes.
"They see the high prices affecting everyone and they say, 'okay, the economy's bad, but hey, I was part of the great resignation, I got a better job, I was able to find work that better suited my skills'."
The "great resignation" is the term used in the US to describe the record number of people who left their traditional jobs in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, essentially reshuffling the American workforce.
"People are pretty optimistic about their own situation," Dunitz adds.
"They're able to get better jobs, they have more power to bargain with employers ... we don't have the concentrated misery that we had after the last recession [2007–2009] where there was 10 percent unemployment by the midterms".
As Democrats continue to win key races and the US electorate appears to be tiring of Trumpian politics, could this be to the advantage of American socialism?
"People are pretty tired of distracting moral panics," says Dunitz.
"It's very clear that these people are not focused on the cost of rent or the cost of everyday groceries.They don't have serious plans to help people," adds Dunitz, who believes that voters are looking for someone who can offer clear proposals.
United we stand, divided we fallAs an activist with the "France for Bernie" movement and the DSA's Paris chapter, Dunitz was a keen observer of this year's French elections and the gains made by the far-left, especially the emergence of a new left-wing coalition, NUPES, after the decimation of France's traditional Socialist Party in 2017.
What have been the lessonss for American socialists from 2022 French polls?
"I think the main takeaway is that the left does better when united," Dunitz says, underlining the differences between electoral systems in Europe and the US.
"In many countries, you make the coalitions after the election ... in the US, we make [them] before the election," Dunitz explains.
Four takeaways from the US midterm elections
"The midterms in states where the Democratic Party was very united, [like] in Michigan – where the number two person in the statehouse will be a DSA member – the Democratic Party did very well.
"In New York ... where Democrats were fighting each other ... the party did very poorly, so I think the one takeaway is that the left should try to stay united," Dunitz concludes.
So will we "Feel the Bern" in 2024? Will Bernie Sanders stand again for the White House?
"I have no idea," he admits.
Watch the full video here.
Written, produced and presented by David Coffey
Recorded and edited by Yann Bourdelas
Max Dunitz is an activist with the "France for Bernie" movement and the Democratic Socialists of America's Paris chapter.
In this edition we’re going to dive into the political Twilight Zone that is British politics to examine how the post-Brexit roller-coaster ride has evolved and expanded into a full-blown theme park as the UK installs its fifth prime minister in six years.
Many political observers have compared the implosion of the recent slew of Conservative UK governments to the antics of a tin-pot banana republic.
And it has been the half-baked economic policies of short-lived Treasury minister Kwasi Kwarteng – on the orders of "executive chef" Liz Truss – that led to them both being kicked out of the kitchen.
Back in 2016, few could have predicted what a recipe for disaster Brexit would become for the British economy, let alone the country's political stability.
Six years on one might be forgiven for feeling a sense of schadenfreude creeping into the oppositions' political narrative.
The populist maelstrom of jingoism is apparently clearing to unveil the stark reality of near-economic collapse.
Since prime ministers Cameron, May, Johnson and Truss have been taken off the menu, the rock of stability that was once the UK has been eroded off the sands and crashed on the shore.
Ok. Enough with the metaphors.
Return to stabilityFollowing Liz Truss' resignation last Thursday, the Conservative Party's 1922 Committee gave their MPs a tight window to choose a new PM by this Friday.
By Monday, Boris Johnson had ruled out a comeback (for now), although he had garnered the support of at least 102 MPs that would have given him the threshold to join the hustings.
By midday, former chancellor Rishi Sunak and leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt were the only contenders in the race.
By lunchtime, Mordaunt had pulled out, clearing the way for Sunak to be named as Conservative Party leader and therefore the UK's next prime minister.
As political machinations continued at breakneck speed in London, France's President Emmanuel Macron wished the UK "a rapid return to stability" as yet another leader bit the dust.
On the question of stability, Jeremy Stubbs, who heads the Association of British Conservatives in Paris told RFI that he still remains hopeful.
"It's true that there was a sudden drama surrounding Liz Truss, the sacking of a chancellor and other acts ... which showed her whole leadership and legitimacy were in doubt," he explains.
"What we can hope for or at least expect is a return to something like normality. That is to say a leader who knows what they're doing; who is not going to try any alternative medical cures on the economy."
Stubbs reckons Sunak's tenure at Number 10 will be neither exciting nor inspiring, "it's just going to be economic management of a traditional kind ... with probably a lot of bitter pills to swallow," he says.
After the calamitous six-week reign of Liz Truss and former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s ill-conceived budget – which almost collapsed the British economy – what are Britons bracing for in the coming weeks?
"It's going to be very, very hard," Stubbs concedes, "because the Conservative reign in government began back in 2010 with austerity. Things seemed to be getting a little bit better, then the pandemic came."
Stubbs believes that "all the signs" are there that the UK is going to be ushering in a new era of austerity.
"We're back where we started."
Even Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer admits that the UK can't avoid austerity measures.
"He blames it all on the conservatives, of course," Stubbs chides, "but he admits that even if Labour were in power, they would not be in any position to do anything terribly different for the moment."
The head of British Conservatives in Paris harkens back to the dark days of 1973, when Conservative Prime Minister Ted Heath admitted "it's going to be a long, hard winter such as we have never known."
Stubbs believes this winter, "those words are going to come to haunt us."
Frustration and confusionLooking at the implosion of successive Conservative governments from afar may be entertaining for some, but how have traditional Tories – such as Stubbs and his association in Paris – viewed the shenanigans at Westminster from abroad?
"I think the feeling is one of frustration and embarrassment," Stubbs admits, "but ultimatly we hope that somehow the ship will be brought back on to an even keel."
In that sense, Stubbs says he doesn't feel the mood is very different abroad than in Britain.
However, one thing is clear: Sunak's appointment as prime minister isn't an election, but a coronation.
"That might generate a greater amount of frustration – particularly in Britain – less so abroad," he recognises.
Stubbs concludes, "I think members find themselves in a very, very difficult situation – psychologically. They're hoping that things can be brought back to some sort of normality.
"People are frustrated ... who is responsible to who here? It's a time of great confusion."
Watch full video here.
Written, produced and presented by David Coffey.
Recorded and edited by Cécile Pompeani, Nicholas Doreau and Erwan Rome.
Jeremy Stubbs is the head of the Association of British Conservatives in Paris and deputy editor of Le Causeur magazine.
This edition of Paris Perspective looks at what France needs to do to achieve its carbon-neutral goals by 2050. Is it possible to decarbonise the country's supply chains from A to Z, while facing ever more challenging economic and logistic hurdles?
Remember the global rush to buy toilet paper?
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the fragility of the world's supply chains was laid bare as supermarket shelves emptied and governments struggled to allay consumer fears that the system was broken.
Just over two years later, the world is facing the worst energy and inflation crisis in a generation, with a war in Europe and the threat of nuclear conflict.
The pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine have helped underline the importance of decarbonising the way goods are transported.
The Shift ProjectReuben Fisher is Freight Project Manager with The Shift Project think-tank, and co-authour of a recent report entitled “Securing freight in a finite world.”
Since 1960, freight traffic in France has tripled. Road freight accounts for 90 percent of the market and 95 percent of that is powered by fossil fuels.
When Fisher set out in 2020 to define the challenges ahead, the concept of transporting more goods with a limited amount of energy was not top of the agenda. But that has changed.
"When we were working on this aspect of the report in 2020, limited energy wasn't the most immediate factor.
"Now, it's become a crucial concern," Fisher explains, "fossil fuel for our vehicles is subsidised at a rate of almost 25 percent of the cost."
2022 droughts and waterways2022 has been indelibly marked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent choking of the world's largest supply of grain. That sparked a global food crisis. Russian gas supplies to Europe have been cut off, sanctions against Moscow are having a negative impact on Western economies and inflation has hit a record high.
2022 has also been one of the hottest on record. In France, drought provoked by a succession of extreme heatwaves devastated crops and massively impacted the country's waterways.
Barges were able to load only a fraction of normal tonnage because water levels in canals and navigable rivers were so low. Can inland water transportation be future-proofed as the summers get hotter, and the water levels lower?
As a short-term solution, Fisher believes "an operational answer is the maintenance of the waterways, ensuring that they don't fill up with mud so we can keep the water level as deep as necessary for the boats to get through."
This year, when the barges couldn't take the goods on board, the road hauliers picked up the load, thus increasing the amount of freight on motorways, feeding into the cycle of congestion, pollution and environmental degradation.
The Shift Project's report on securing freight in a finite world also proposes that urban deliveries should be fully electric within 5 years. Anyone living in an urban environment in France will have already noticed a dramatic increase in e-bike and e-cargo deliveries since Covid. The carbon neutralising of the so-called "last kilometre" – delivery to the end point – would seem to be well underway.
"It's definitely gathering pace. But it's not the case everywhere," Fisher underlines. "Paris is probably ahead of the crowd.
"I'm not sure we're seeing the same things in all of the big cities throughout France. Paris has the objective of having zero diesel vehicles by 2024. So we're looking at just over a 12-month period. The transition that we're seeing in Paris, is probably an example for other cities to follow."
He says that although The Shift Project emphasises that all delivery vehicles should be electrified, "wherever possible, we should replace those vehicles by cargo banks."
These are intermediate logistics centres, from which bulk-shipped goods can be re-distributed by cycle courrier or collected by pedestrians.
However, their generalisation would require huge operational changes within the delivery chain, including infrastructure for people servicing the banks to be able to shower after work.
Will that be done in the next five years? "Yes, in some places, but probably not in all of the big cities in France."
The buck stops hereAccording to The Shift Project, if everything in their toolbox is utilised between now and 2050, energy consumption will be reduced by 80 percent and freight emissions by 96 percent.
That is a mind-boggling reversal of the current trend.
However, when it comes to getting the private sector and governments to pick up those tools, one question hangs like a sword of Damocles over carbon transition initiatives – How much will it cost?
"My answer is going to seem extremely unprofessional, but I don't know," Fisher laughs. "The reason I don't know is that within the report, we worked with the physical constraints – which are basically energy and limited supply."
Although the cost of decarbonisation will be an issue, he says, it will be secondary.
"If the aim is to decarbonise and to ensure that we can maintain an enjoyable society with a limited amount of energy, then the question of how much it costs is probably not the main question."
It will need to be worked out and it will need to be budgeted.
To conclude, Fisher brings to the fore another, often overlooked, aspect of what decarbonising our supply chain will entail.
"What will the impact of these transformations be on employment? Both in terms of who we need to train now in order to make sure that these changes can happen? Because some jobs are going to disappear."
Might it be the full electrification of France's motorways and vehicles that will put the biggest dent in the pockets of the public and private sectors who join the drive to be carbon-neutral by 2050?
"It might be," says Fisher but it will most likely be the future human resources in a carbon-free world.
"We didn't work on the quantification of the cost of training, for example. So, if we are saying that we're going to train the several million people who will work in the logistics centres, that could probably be a little bit pricey, too."
Watch full video here.
Written, produced and presented by David Coffey.
Recorded and edited by Erwan Rome and Vincent Pora.
Reuben Fisher is the Freight Project Manager with The Shift Project think-tank and co-author of the report “Securing freight in a finite world”. He is based in Aix-en-Provence.
In this edition of Paris Perspective, RFI's David Coffey meets former UK foreign secretary and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, to discuss the crises the world is facing in 2022 and what his NGO is doing to help millions of refugees and internally displaced.
Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has sent grain prices sky-rocketing and further highlighted the fragility of the supply chain, with food insecurity in developing countries of particular concern.
A succession of failed rains and subsequent drought has plunged East Africa into near-famine conditions, while Afghanistan's economy has collapsed since the Taliban took over in August 2021, with almost the entire population now living below the poverty line.
During a recent visit to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, emphasised that Afghanistan is the worst of the crises that feature on the NGO's "Emergency Watchlist".
Women's rights under the draconian rule of the Taliban are of particular concern. Miliband's organisation has some 7,000 local staff working in the country in the wake of the withdrawal of the US-led military coalition last year.
Afghanistan's economic collapseMiliband chooses his words carefully when he explains, "it's easier in some ways to do humanitarian work in Afghanistan today, than it was two or three years ago.
"Why? Well, there isn't a war going on. So it's actually safer in one way. Now, it's less safe if you are a vocal opponent of the regime. And it's less safe or less free, if you're a woman."
Miliband says that around 45 percent of the IRC staff working in the country are women, delivering treatment to the malnourished, education – including for girls – as well as livelihood support.
"What we're facing is an economic meltdown. The war economy is over, but a new economy has not been built. They've been given a crash course in administration, in establishing a new, much poorer equilibrium.
"And that's how you end up with this extraordinary statistic ...The United Nations says that 97 percent of Afghans are living below the poverty line."
He underlines, however, that the statistic is a measurement of the formal economy, accepting that there is a large informal economy in the country.
As CEO of the International Rescue Committee, Miliband laments the fact that Afghans are being punished twice over since assets were frozen by the US following the fall of Kabul.
As the economy is in freefall, Miliband underlines, "they didn't choose their government, but they're being punished for their government in a way that doesn't actually help them."
So what is the International Rescue Committee and what work does it do? What drew Miliband to join the organisation, touted as "the most under-recognised yet influential non-governmental aid group in the world," when he left UK politics behind?
The International Rescue Committee, headquartered in New York has its origins in Europe, and was founded by Albert Einstein in the 1930s.
"He was consumed by a sense of guilt," Miliband explains "and fear about what was happening in Europe, the rise of the Nazis, the threats to Jews, to intellectuals, to dissidents, and he effectively set up the IRC in order to rescue people from Europe.
"Our first employee was a man called Varian Fry, he set up a safe house in Marseille, he issued 2000 fake passports and people like Marc Chagall lived because they were helped to escape from Nazi-occupied France by the IRC or its founders," explains Miliband.
According to the former foreign secretary, that spirit of humanity, entrepreneurialism and of risk taking remains part of the lifeblood of the organisation: "We help people whose lives are shattered by conflict, persecution and disaster to survive, recover and gain control of their lives.
"Why did that attract me? Very briefly, one – I like hard problems and these are tough cases. Two – not many people knew about the IRC, and it had a responsibility in 2013 when I joined, to step up as an organisation that was focused on these problems. Thirdly – my parents were refugees. So there's a sense of the closing of a circle really, to work in this area," he confides.
Food insecurity is nothing newIn 2022, the repercussions of Russia's "special operation" in Ukraine have shaken the global economy to its foundations, with Moscow's strangulation of Ukraine's grain exports and the shutting down of Russian energy supplies to Europe having knock-on effects across the planet.
For Miliband, however, the Ukraine war didn't create a food crisis, it has just exacerbated a precarious situation that already existed.
He says that there were135 million people at acute levels of food insecurity – two steps below famine level – three years ago.
"Now it's 345 million," Miliband explains, "in part, driven by Covid and then by the Ukraine crisis and the effect on grain prices. So it's important to understand what the problem is to develop a solution.
"We're saying we've got to do two things. One – we got to treat the symptoms. The US delivered $1.1 billion of commitment in July, to mitigate the worst effects of the crisis for the 35 million people at the door of famine in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. We've got to treat child malnutrition much better – 80 percent of acutely malnourished kids don't get any help at all at the moment.
"We can't as an international agency affect the global food system. But we can argue for and invest in, for example, climate resilient agriculture, because Africa should be feeding more of its own people.
"But that takes investment. That takes account of the dangers of the climate crisis, which is here. Now I often hear people say, 'Oh, well, better to feed people now ... we'll deal with the climate crisis in 40 years time'. The climate crisis is here now," he concludes.
David Miliband is the UK former foreign secretary and CEO of the International Rescue Committee based in New York.
The podcast currently has 42 episodes available.