Redefining climate action: the intellectual challenge taken up by Sciences Po's Paris Climate School

In 2025, the environmental crisis is no longer an abstraction. Exceeding the targets set by the Paris Agreement—to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels—marks a historic turning point. Its effects are now part of everyday life: extreme heat waves, prolonged droughts, and natural disasters are disrupting the functioning of our societies and weakening our economies. The humanities and social sciences, which have long been marginal in these debates dominated by the so-called “hard” sciences, are now highlighting the scale of the political, economic, and social implications. According to Adrien Bilal, runner-up for the 2025 Best Young Economist Award, the economic losses associated with global warming could be up to six times higher than conventional estimates, reaching up to 25% of global GDP per additional degree. ¹ The European Central Bank, in collaboration with the University of Oxford, has shown that extreme drought in Europe would jeopardize more than 15% of the eurozone’s economic output. ² These data invite us to consider the systemic nature of this crisis, that is, to view it as a threat capable of simultaneously destabilizing several interdependent dimensions of our societies.

However, this existential crisis faces a democratic paradox. Although polls indicate that citizens are deeply concerned, ³ climate policies often encounter resistance and opposition. In some contexts, this hostility manifests as an explicit denial of scientific knowledge. In the United States, the Department of Energy has disseminated false information to legitimize deregulation policies, ⁴ while between January and June 2025, 847 instances of terms such as “climate change” being removed from official websites were recorded. ⁵ In Europe, questions are being raised about the fairness of the efforts required and their relevance in the face of persistent inaction by the world’s largest emitters. This discrepancy highlights the political and social dimensions of the ecological transition: it is not merely a technical question of adjusting energy trajectories, but involves conflicts over values, development models, and distributive justice among groups, territories, and generations.

In this context, universities have a crucial role to play. More than ever, we need to learn from several decades of climate action at all levels of governance—public, private, local, national, and international. This involves going beyond a purely technical interpretation of the issues, not to challenge them but to connect scientific knowledge to economic levers and political, legal, and social dynamics. The goal is not only to anticipate risks better but also to train actors capable of leading the profound transformation of organizations and societies in response to challenges of increasing and continually accelerating scale. While several leading universities, such as Stanford (Doerr School of Sustainability) and Columbia (Climate School), have already embarked on this path, no European institution has yet opted for a school of humanities and social sciences specifically dedicated to ecological transition.

This is precisely the challenge that Sciences Po intends to take up with the creation of the Paris Climate School. Drawing on the institution’s unique expertise in the humanities and social sciences, this new school combines a multi-scale approach to ecological transition with a strong commitment to interdisciplinarity, which includes structured dialogue with the so-called “hard” sciences. It is based on a broad conception of ecological transition, which encompasses not only the fight against global warming but also the preservation of biodiversity, the sustainable management of natural resources, and the analysis and management of risks related to disasters and adaptation.

The aim is to train a new generation of decision-makers. The Paris Climate School offers an integrated teaching approach that combines life sciences and technological innovations with insights from the humanities and social sciences. It fuses foundational knowledge with case studies and practical examples, particularly those provided by private companies. Far from being limited to just a collection of knowledge, the approach encourages a genuine dialogue between understanding biophysical scales (climate, biodiversity, resources) and analyzing the political, economic, and social dynamics connected to them. This crossover emphasizes the connections and interdependencies between natural phenomena and human organizations. It aims to equip students with the tools they need to analyze ecological controversies, navigate between different levels of governance—from local to global—and understand the tensions inherent in ecological transition. At the same time, the school develops applied thinking on risk management and adaptation, on how public and private constraints interact, and on the concrete conditions for organizational transformation. Finally, this program seeks to enhance leadership skills, promote robust decision-making, and cultivate the mindset of reflexivity and foresight necessary to anticipate and support changes of such magnitude.

The Paris Climate School is therefore not just a place for sharing knowledge but also a space for intellectual production and experimentation. By integrating education, research, and action, it aims to contribute to the renewal of analytical frameworks for ecological transition and train individuals capable of operating in an environment marked by instability and urgency. It will serve as a platform for public discussion, where new ways of thinking and acting can be developed in response to the upheavals of this century. Through this initiative, Sciences Po is highlighting its commitment to actively contributing to the reinvention of the knowledge and practices necessary to address the existential challenge of ecological transition.

1. A Bilal and DR Känzig, ‘The Macroeconomic Impact of Climate Change: Global vs Local Temperature’ NBER Working Paper No 32450 (National Bureau of Economic Research, May 2024, rev Nov 2024).
2. Andrej Ceglar, Francesca Danieli, Irene Heemskerk, Mark Jwaideh & Nicola Ranger, ‘The European economy is not drought-proof’ (ECB Blog, 23 May 2025) (‘Surface water scarcity alone puts almost 15% of the euro area’s economic output at risk.’)
3. Ipsos and CESI Engineering School, Climat et transition énergétique : les Français dubitatifs – Jour de la Terre 2025 (Paris, Ipsos 22 April 2025) (Global Advisor study, conducted online in 32 countries, including France, January 24–February 7, 2025).
4. Stéphane Foucart, ‘Scientists outraged by climate-skeptic report commissioned by Trump administration’ Le Monde (6 August 2025)
5. Isabella Pacenza, Gretchen Gehrke, Rob Brackett et al, Climate of Suppression: Environmental Information Under the Second Trump Administration (Environmental Data & Governance Initiative 6 August 2025)(‘Removing nearly 900 important changes—including 847 suppressions of terms like ‘climate change’—on federal websites between January and June 2025.’)