Philippe Jurgensen
In partenrship with Radio des cinq académies de l’Institut de France (Canal Académie)
Lecture as part of the Great Decisions program
Inspector General of Finance, a graduate of Sciences-Po and the National School of Administration (ENA), Philippe Jurgensen began his career 1969 as Inspector of Finance. From 1973 to 1974, he was a policy officer in the office of the Minister of Economics and Finance, after which he joined the Office of the Treasury as bureau chief, and then as deputy director of multilateral affairs, and beginning in 1982, as deputy director of the Treasury and head of the department of international affairs. While holding these positions, he presided over the Club of Paris on the debt of emerging-market countries in 1984 and 1985.
From 1985 to 1987, he held the position of Director of External Economic Relations (DREE) at the Ministry of Economics and Finance, and then for six years starting in 1989 as Director General of the French Development Fund, today known as the French Development Agency.
From 1980 to 1995, various companies called on Philippe Jurgensen to fill administrative positions: the European Investment Bank (BEI), Havas, Compagnie Générale d’Electricité (CGE), Matra, CNES, Dassault, Crédit Lyonnais, Paribas, Indosuez, and from 1995 to 2007 SIPAREX and the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI).
In 1995, he became Chief Executive Officer of Sofaris (French Society of Guarantee for Financing of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises) then in October 1996, Chief Executive Officer of Anvar (National Agency for Research Promotion). From 1996 to June 2005, he also served as the Secretary General of the Interministerial Committee Eurêka.
Finally, since July 2004, he has held the position as President of the ACAM (Authority for Monitoring Insurance and Mutual Insurance Companies) and as member of the Banking Commission.
He is also professor (general economics) at Sciences-Po in Paris and starting in 2010 will be offering a class on environment economics at IPAG (business school).
Philippe Jurgensen has been awarded the Legion of Honor (Officer) and the National Order of Merit (Commander).
He has published a number of works on:
Écu, naissance d’une monnaie (ECU, Birth of a Currency), éditions Jean-Claude Lattès, 1991, Prize of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences –Limantour Foundation and Turgot Prize 1992.
L'Euro pour tous (The Euro for All), éditions Odile Jacob, Paris, Febrary 1998.
Le Guide de l'euro pour tous (General Guide to the Euro), éditions Odile Jacob, Paris, September 2001.
- Economics of development and sustainable development:
L'Erreur de l'Occident face à la mondialisation (The Error of the West vis-à-vis Globalization), éditions Odile Jacob, Paris, March 2004.
L'Économie verte (Green Economics), éditions Odile Jacob, February 2009, Prize for the Book on the Environment 2009 - Veolia Environment Foundation.
Lectures
Green Economy: How to Save Our Planet?
Cyclones, floods, fires, have followed one upon another at an ever faster pace in recent years. Today, ecology is a shared concern: polls show that a large majority of the public in our countries are ready to agree on efforts to protect the environment -at least provided that these efforts are not too expensive.
Ecology is high on the list of political programs, the “Greens” participate in the governments of a number of countries; in France, the “Grenelle de l’Environnement” (multi-party debate on the environment) spread -beyond a “precautionary principle” the generalization of which may appear debatable- sound principles such as the “polluter pays” regulation, or the requirement to establish carbon assessments.
However, there are still too many behaviors which run counter to this trend: the financial and economic crisis has sometimes led to drop environmental restrictions in the name of protecting jobs. Each of us in our personal habits also contributes -sometimes unknowingly- to the degradation of our planet.
What are the concrete steps that we can take on an individual, national, or international level? What are the priorities, and what are the obstacles? What are reasonable deadlines? Which programs are realistic?
Reacting effectively does not mean damning globalization, mowing down experimental crops, or advocating the closing of all nuclear plants. On the contrary, to come to the aid of nature, it means returning to the two main instruments which have sometimes contributed to destroying it: well-understood science, which offers a number of promises, and an economy which only wants its laws to play out for the good of the environment, provided that we promote, as appropriate, production and ecological approaches.
It is what we might call the “green economy” or “econology” which assumes an integrated approach to sustainable development, implies a concerted management of “global public goods” such as water, earth, forests, biodiversity and a progression towards eco-design (products designed from the start to be easily recyclable) and towards a “circular economy” (organization in which the waste from one activity is used as raw materials for the next).
A New Global Demography: Predictions and Changes
Demographic evolution has a great force of inertia; the future of our population has, in large part, already been written. Two examples will suffice to illustrate this: on the one hand, all of 2070’s retirees have already been born; on the other hand, the decline of the “native” European population during the next decades is an inevitable phenomenon.
The corroborating predictions of demographers estimate that the global population will stabilize in the second half of this century at 9.3 billion inhabitants. This prediction may be surprising given that the population of our planet is still currently increasing in absolute value at an unprecedented pace: 75 million people per year. Today, there are close to 7 billion (6.8 billion to be precise) inhabitants in the world. But this rhythm of growth is in the process of slowing because of the strong decrease in fertility and birth rates everywhere in the world, with the notable exception of Africa. With the exception of this continent, the result will be an inevitable aging of the global population. We can all understand the significant repercussions that this phenomenon will have on retirement plans. Nor can we conceal the importance today of developing countries in world population: the three billion extra human beings who will be added to the global population will all come from currently developing countries.
Africa, which only accounted for 225 million inhabitants in 1950, has seen its population quadruple since, and has just topped the billion mark. This figure will double again between now and the middle of the century. In 1950, fewer than one person in ten was African; one hundred years later, it will be more than one out of five. The demographic dynamic in Sub-Saharan Africa is so explosive that each year in Nigeria alone more babies are born than in all of the 27 countries in the European Union: six million versus five!
How can we explain such imbalances? How can we contain this demographic growth in certain countries of the South and stimulate it in the countries of the North? What are the issues in demographic growth on the availability of natural resources, economic and social equilibrium -problems with respect to retirement, dealing with dependence, etc.- recovery measures put into play?
The Financial Crisis: A Crisis for No Reason?
The financial crisis, trigger for the economic crisis which has raged in the world in 2009, can in part be attributed to flaws in financial regulation, even if it is largely a result of the recklessness of investors and speculative excess in the markets.
In fact, the most serious mistakes were made in the cracks of an often spotty financial regulation, as in the United States, between too great a number of organizations and which certainly only very partially covered the financial innovations with respect to securitization of off-balance sheet liabilities -and not at all financial scoring agencies, which eluded all monitoring and systematically under assessed risks.
Will the lessons learned from this crisis be remembered, whereas today we are already seeing new excesses being set in motion, both with respect to securitization and credit risks (corporate, sovereign, etc.), speculative activities under the pretext of requirements, and variable remuneration (bonus).
Will efforts by global (G20) or regional (in Europe and elsewhere) consultative authorities (G20) notably to monitor systemic risks upstream, strengthen the ratios of equity capital ratios, solvency and liquidity, standardize accounting regulations, and fill in the gaps in regulation be sufficient to avoid the accumulation and bursting of new financial bubbles?
Even if progress has been made, we can still have our doubts today faced with the strong resistance from financial lobbies and a lack of sufficient international coordination.
Links
All of the columns by Philippe Jurgensen on Canal Académie:
http://www.canalacademie.com/+-Philippe-Jurgensen-+.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QlbEmwZPa4
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