Julien Bayou, national secretary of Europe Ecologie les Verts and candidate for the presidency of the Ile-de-France region, answered Finascope's questions two weeks before the first round of voting. In this new "Strategy Interview", he calls for a Green New Deal that will create, according to him, tens of thousands of jobs. The environmentalist does not believe in free market action for impact finance.
Mr Bayou, is the development of financial activities in Paris an important issue for you?
I hope that the Region will give impetus to a Green New Deal that will create tens of thousands of jobs in sectors of the future, adapt our region to climate change and, more generally, to environmental constraints and social justice. Up to now, the development of financial activities in Paris has not particularly enabled the relocation of economic activities, nor has it limited the extractivist race to the front, nor the region's dependence on international trade. The development of financial activities that I would like to see is one that stops diverting money to tax havens, that redirects capital from climate-impacting industries to the sectors of activity of tomorrow.
I am quite appalled at the backwardness of some French financial players.
Julien Bayou
What measures would you recommend to achieve this development?
To accelerate the financing of future activities, compatible with climate issues, I wish to encourage sustainable finance. All regional economic aid will be subject to ecological and social criteria. This criterization work, carried out in conjunction with the social partners and civil society, will undoubtedly support the development of indicators that will make it possible to objectify the impact of economic players and thus direct capital towards virtuous activities, those of the 21st century. I am quite shocked to see how far behind some French financial players are. One would think that certain information does not make an impression, a bit like a 19th century investor who cannot conceive that the era of the steam engine has begun.
How can we reconcile this climate and social emergency with economic and financial development?
It is time to make choices. I note, for example, that because it was the last to get involved, Total is now the energy company that is investing in offshore wind power at the lowest cost, because it is the last of the Europeans to get involved. It is up to financial institutions to invest where it will work. That is to say, in the local area, in the economy that meets the needs of the inhabitants, in new materials, recycling or reuse. We must plan now for the readjustment of industrial tools if we want to avoid colossal financial and human losses in a few years. Be aware of what is happening, and act accordingly, bet on the future with the right cards in hand.
Some people feel they have too much to lose today and prefer to hide from it.
Why, in your opinion, are climate issues not sufficiently taken into account by financial players in France?
Denial is too entrenched. Decades have been lost. Some people feel they have too much to lose now and prefer to hide from it. Others, perhaps, are playing the scorched earth game: who cares if the harvests become unpredictable, they will be able to play on the futures markets all the more. Strengthening regulation is inevitable, which is why environmentalists are mobilising in the European Parliament, the Senate and soon, again, in the Assembly.
I am also a fervent supporter of the criterionisation of public expenditure, which must only be directed towards the general interest. If the private sector is incapable of acting in the right way, the public sector must act.
How can savings be better directed in this direction?
By acting transparently and offering meaningful financial products. When savers are told that their money is being used to create jobs in their region, that it is being used to strengthen our energy or food autonomy and that they are not losing money, it speaks to them! The principle of citizen energies with Energie partagée or agricultural real estate companies open to the public, such as Terre de Liens This is exactly what it is: without waiting for institutional investors, without waiting for public authorities, without even waiting for BA (Business Angels) or VC (Venture Capital), citizens and entrepreneurs are collectively organizing to mobilize savings that will finance projects of general and local interest.
Without regulation, I'm sorry to say it so frankly, finance is incapable of thinking beyond a few days or a few months.
The government wants to make Paris the world capital of impact finance and is leading several initiatives in this direction. Do you support these efforts?
World capital or not, I don't know. Yes, we need to develop impact finance. But if it's impact finance and at the same time finance that invests in coal mines or deforestation in Indonesia, no thanks! Impact finance, by the free action of the markets alone, will not work, otherwise it would have become widespread at least since 2008. Without regulation, sorry to say it so frankly, finance is unable to think more than a few days or months ahead. So yes to the development of impact finance, yes to the generalization of solid, reliable impact indicators. But yes also for a real regulation of the financial markets, and a taxation in the right proportion to the profits made.