People & Profit

As developing economies need more financial support to deal with climate change, we look at the crucial role the private sector can play in the green transition. The head of the International Finance Corporation, Makhtar Diop, joins us from Marrakech to share his insights on the role the private sector has to play in development and climate change resilience.

Semiconductor microchips power the electronic devices that are a mainstay of 21st century daily life, whether it's our smartphone, our car, or the data centres that hold all our online information. These chips are of strategic importance and in a changing geopolitical landscape where transnational trade routes are increasingly at risk of disruption, the race is on to bring their manufacturing closer to home.

This week we head to Monaco on the French Riviera, where the principality is holding its annual Yacht Show. Visitors will be able to gawk at the world's most expensive leisure boats and a lucky few might even be able to buy one. But behind the glitz and glamour, the industry is facing choppy seas. Russian buyers are now out of the game, and the conversation over the sector's outsized carbon emissions is catching up with it.

Finding space... in space! We speak to General Michel Friedling, founder of Look Up Space, the French startup that's developing a solution to better navigate Earth's increasingly cluttered lower orbit.

As France hosts hundreds of thousands of rugby fans from around the world for the 2023 World Cup, we take a deep-dive into the business that surrounds the game with Herbert Mensah, president of Rugby Africa who joins us from Accra in Ghana, as well as Christina Philippou, a principal lecturer at the University of Portsmouth with a particular research interest in sports finance.

As carmakers transition away from the internal combustion engine towards electric vehicles, we take a look at how the switch is reshaping global supply chains, trade route and geopolitics. We talk to Henry Sanderson, author of "Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green". He is also the Executive Editor at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

This week we're at the 2023 annual MEDEF meeting, where the largest employers' federation in France gets leaders of the country's business community together to discuss the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead – one of them being the transition to a green economy. A world leader when it comes to waste treatment and solutions is French group Veolia. Its CEO Estelle Brachlianoff told FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin about the solutions that waste can provide when it comes to energy.

In a post-Covid era where music lovers have less disposable income and organisers face higher costs, we discuss what music festivals can do to survive. We're joined by John Rostron, CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals in the UK.

As football clubs form their teams for next season, more and more of them are turning to a digital marketplace to see which players they could sign on. Charles Pellegrin talks to Frederik Broholt, commercial vice president of TransferRoom. Also, we take a look at the historic deal that reduces Ecuador’s debt burden and guarantees better protection of the Galapagos ecosystem.

As the aviation industry gathers at the Paris Air Show, aircraft manufacturers are cautiously optimistic. Demand for international travel is growing, although inflation and supply chain issues still dampen the mood. In this special edition of People & Profit from Le Bourget, FRANCE 24's Charles Pellegrin talks to Boeing's senior VP Brendan Nelson about the industry's rebound.