Each week, find an overview of the major social, economic and ecological challenges of our time.
From the feeling of discrimination to hiring in France, to questioning the carbon impact of the ultra-rich, to the challenges of climate adaptation, this article explores the major current topics in CSR. As climate and social pressure increases, who will be able to take up the challenge of turning promises into concrete actions?
Find all the CSR news in this article.
Half of employees fear discrimination in hiring
Medef has published a 2024 National CSR & Equal Opportunities Barometer, interviewing 1,800 French employees. Among them, 48% say they fear being discriminated against when hiring. This figure is down slightly compared to last year. The first source of concern in this area is age (up to 81% among 55-64 year olds).
In addition, this study shows that there is a significant gap on certain CSR topics between employees and their company. Three subjects in particular are affected by this “hiatus”: equal opportunities, the environment and the employment of people over 50.
This tends to generate a “feeling out of step” between employees and the values displayed by the company, whose authenticity they increasingly believe less and less, according to studies conducted on the subject in recent months.
“Making performance obsolete” in favor of robustness?
Olivier Hamant, a researcher in resource economics at ENS de Lyon who is Olivier Hamant, gives an interview to Novethic in which he develops his idea of robustness, a principle that should replace that of performance in corporate governance.
He argues that the ecological, geopolitical and economic instabilities of the world considerably weaken business models organized exclusively around the imperative of financial performance.
In response to this model, he pleads the robustness : “the ability to keep the system stable and viable despite fluctuations”. The question is therefore asked: who will take the burden of maintaining the longevity and sustainability of their business model at the expense of optimizing their returns? Such a development requires a rethinking of the economic system as a whole. Because if we do not do it today, economic and climatic hazards may well force us to do so in the future.
What is the ESG impact on the influencer side?
Influencers and content creators online and on social networks are often real brands on their own. With a fundamentally entrepreneurial operation, their economic model is essentially based on commercial partnerships.
The collective Pay for your influence is working on the issue of the ESG impact of these commercial uses, denouncing “opaque” practices and “incentives to overconsumption”. These considerations are based on the observation of marketing practices similar to those of advertising, which then require the same vigilance and the same supervision on the part of the public authorities.
Thus, the collective intends, in collaboration with Ademe, to publish a guide to responsible influence for influencers in order to frame business models that often encourage lifestyles that are out of step with the climate emergency.
Returning to work after a long illness, what are the challenges for the company?
According to studies by the National Cancer Institute, the incidence of a long-term illness generates significant professional inequalities. As such, the issue of returning these employees to work is a real challenge of inclusion for the company to take up.
Poor supervision of the return to work is likely to promote a weakening of team morale as well as contract breaches. To deal with this risk, CareGiver Conseil offers a list of objectives for managers to fulfill:
- Identify key contacts to better support
- Communicate in an appropriate and transparent manner
- Maintain the link with the absent for a smooth return
- Arrange the position and the schedules
Carbon inequalities: billionaires emit 7,700 tons per year
The latest Oxfam report, published ahead of COP29 in November, focuses on carbon inequalities. In particular, it highlights the colossal gap between the GHG emissions of the 50 largest fortunes on the planet and those of the poorest.
On average, a billionaire emits 7,700 T of Co2 per year, while individuals among the poorest 50% in the world emit only 1 T every year.
In addition, it is possible to consider the carbon footprint of the financial investments of these billionaires, 40% of which are destined for carbon-intensive industries. In 2022, the impact of the investments of French billionaires was 2.4 million tons of CO2.
Thus, it appears that socio-economic inequalities often cover ecological inequalities.
Reduction in emissions: 2.6% instead of the required 43%
Two weeks before COP29, the UN Climate published a report according to which the climate commitments made by States would currently only lead to a 2.6% reduction in GHG emissions for 2030, in contrast to the 43% prescribed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees.
These figures are the result of combining data related to the emission reduction commitments of the 195 countries that are signatories to the Paris Agreement. They thus mark the “absence of significant progress” by States over the past year.
Once again, UN Climate calls for this report to be made a “turning point” to truly accelerate the impact of ecological policies on the climate: “We need a global mobilization of a scale and pace never seen before, and we need it right now, or the 1.5°C goal will soon be dead.” Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.
Consulting firms adapt to young graduates' quest for meaning
The first recruitment sector for young graduates from Grandes Écoles is that of consulting. However, more and more newcomers to the job market are asserting their need for a meaningful job, whose impact would be positive on society and on the environment.
Driven by regulations and consumer requirements, whose level of requirement is constantly increasing, these firms have established departments specializing in CSR and sustainable development issues. An ideal location for young graduates in search of meaning.
For example, at EY, an associate says that two-thirds of his team is under 30, and that he sees the “strong attractiveness for these jobs on the part of young people”. In short, this situation offers some the opportunity to reconcile the world of advice and a positive impact.
Adapting to a +4°C world, really?
Last Friday, the government presented its National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (Pnacc), which aims to constitute a strategy for adapting to climate change. It strives to anticipate the forecasts of the IPCC which, taking into account the attitude of states in the world, predict an increase of 4°C in the average temperature by 2100.
This series of 51 proposals is strongly criticized by NGOs and ecological and environmental defense associations. Overall, they see it as a document composed of “too many incentives and too few resources”. However, there is a measure that would make it mandatory for companies to publish vulnerability studies, presaging a possible “monitoring obligation”.
Several political figures were also skeptical about the very content of this Plan, arguing that it was impossible to “adapt to a +4°C world”.
Tensions over biodiversity credits at COP16
The biodiversity COP16 currently under way in Cali welcomed the lively debate on the supposed reliability of biodiversity credits. Indeed, this financial tool is widely criticized by a number of experts and associations who would like to prevent the abuse linked to carbon credits from happening again.
Indeed, most follow-up evaluations and surveys carried out on the impact of carbon credits have shown their inefficiency in reducing emissions on the one hand, and the tendency to negatively impact local populations on the other.
However, an international advisory committee was launched, theInternational Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits (IAPB), and issued a report aimed at ensuring the proper use and credibility of this highly contested device. Indeed, nearly 240 civil society organizations have signed a text warning of the dangers of abuses and abuses linked to biodiversity credits, in particular greenwashing.
Violent floods in Valencia
Spain is affected by violent floods in the east of the country near Valencia. According to figures provided by the emergency services, the devastating effect of these sudden torrential rains led to the death of at least 95 people.
The violence of this extreme climate event is due to the phenomenon, well known to meteorologists, of “Gota Fria” (“cold drop”). This “isolated depression at high altitude” is generally the cause of very intense rains over a fairly long period of time.
Impressive images show car mounds and devastated neighborhoods. A reminder of the double importance of taking seriously the challenges of mitigation, on the one hand, but also of adaptation, to the effects of extreme climate events.
The sources
Youmatter “Half of French employees fear being discriminated against”
Carenews “Pay your influence wants to change the codes of social networks”
RSE Magazine “Disease: a Serious Game to raise awareness when returning to work?”
Novethic “Billionaires and their carbon budget: crazy figures from the Oxfam report”
Les Echos “Do young graduates who have chosen transition counseling feel useful?”
