Under the French Associations Law of 1901, The Shift Project is led by both a Board of Directors, in which are represented member companies, and an Executive Committee. On a daily basis, The Shift Project is managed by the Director and his team. They benefit from the advice of the Committee of Experts. Once a year, a General Meeting allows all the funders, beyond statutory decisions, to monitor the think tank’s activities and set priorities for the following year.
The Board of Directors consists of representatives of benefactor and associated members, as well as individuals acting on their own behalf. The Board meets at least twice a year to supervise the operational work of the Shift ; it may have to specify the main operating principles of the association. Some sponsors may be invited as observers. The Executive Committee is in charge of managing the day-to-day business with the director and his team. In 2018, he was appointed one of the 13 members of the High Council for Climate, created by the Prime Minister.
Jean-Marc Jancovici
Chairman
Jean-Marc Jancovici is the one who designed, then developed the Carbon Assessment Method (« Bilan Carbone »). Graduate from Polytechnique (X81) and teacher at the Mines ParisTech since 2009, he founded Carbone 4, a consulting firm in carbon strategy with the economist Alain Grandjean. He is the editor of the popular website jancovici.com (formerly manicore.com) on energy and climate change and wrote many books related to energy and climate change.
Geneviève Férone-Creuzet
Vice-President
Geneviève Férone-Creuzet is a Doctor in International Economic Law and worked for the IEA, OECD and UNHCR. Chairperson of Casabee, a consulting firm on sustainable territories, she also founded ARESE, the first French social and environmental rating agency for listed companies. She headed the CoreRatings agency, subsidiary of Fitch Ratings, and was also Director of Sustainable Development for Veolia Environment, and a member of the Executive Committee of Eiffage. Vice-chair of the FNH, she wrote many books on economics and environment.
Michel Lepetit
Vice-President
Michel Lepetit is an independent director in the life insurance and in the infrastructure engineering sectors. Graduate from Ecole Polytechnique and former executive of Compagnie Bancaire, Crédit local de France, Caisse d’Epargne and AXA, he is also a researcher in economics, energy and finance history at the interdisciplinary LIED laboratory and expert at the Energy and Prosperity academic chair. Within the Shift, as expert of green finance, he leads the Observatory 173 Climate – Life insurance and works on the GDP/oil historical and prospective link ; the massive financing of energy-efficient building renovation ; the analysis of global energy transition scenarios ; climate-risk rating methodologies ; energy transition monetary policies ; and green finance regulatory issues. He is spokesman of the IN GLOBO project : massively financing the low carbon economy with private savings.
André-Jean Guérin
Administrator
André-Jean Guérin is a former senior official of the French Ministry of Environment. Graduate from Polytechnique (X69) and General Engineer of the Ecole des Eaux, Ponts et Forêts, he was Director of the Fondation Nicolas Hulot (1991–2000) and now its treasurer. He is also adviser to the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council (2010–2015). Historical fellow of the think tank, he helped driving the Decarbonize Europe Manifesto before he became Administator of the Shift in 2016.
Sylvain de Forges
Administrator
Sylvain de Forges is a former Chief Executive Director of Agence France Trésor (2000–2003). Graduated from Polytechnique (X74) and ENA, he was the Deputy Chief Executive Director in finance, strategy and prospects for AG2R La Mondiale (2010–2016) after working for Veolia Environment. He is now Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Spread Research, a financial and non-financial rating agency specialized in small and mid-cap businesses. Administrator of the Shift Project since 2017, he first joined to work on the Decarbonize Europe Manifesto.
Laurent Morel
Administrator and treasurer
Laurent Morel, graduate from Centrale Paris. Chairman of several companies (automotive, industrial vehicles, real estate, financing), he especially was Chairman of Klépierre group (2009–2016) before he became partner of the consulting firm Carbone 4 in 2017 and president of IFPEB in 2018. Administrator of the Shift Project since 2016, and treasurer since 2019.
Fabrice Bonnifet
Administrator
Bouygues SA
Fabrice Bonnifet has been the Director of the Sustainable Development and EHS in the group of Bouygues SA since 2007. Graduate of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, he is a part-time lecturer in several universities and schools. He co-wrote the book “Quality, Security, Environment – Building an integrated management system”, at Afnor Publisher in 2009, and is the administrator of the Assocation France Quality Performance (AFPG). He is also the President of the College of Directors of Sustainable Development (C3D) since 2016.
Isabelle Lambert
Administrator
SPIE
Graduated from the Sciences Po University in Paris and qualified in quality and environment management from the University of Augsburg (Germany), Isabelle Lambert has spent her whole career working in sustainable development roles. In 2001, she worked as an environmental analyst for TOTAL before joining, in 2003, the World Environment Center. Since 2011, she has held the position of Environment and Corporate Social Responsibility Director for the CGG group. In 2019, she was appointed appointed Corporate Social Responsibility Director for SPIE.
Pierre-Olivier Boyer
Administrator
Vicat
Pierre-Olivier Boyer graduated from the Ecole du Commissariat de la Marine and in Economics. First a commissioner in the merchant navy, he joined Vicat group in 2001 as Director of Human Relations, and chaired the « Pôle innovations constructives » of the Rhône-Alpes region. Since 2012, he has been the director of strategic partnerships of the group.
Aurélien Canonne
Administrator
SENERGY’T
Aurélien Canonne is a graduate of EM Strasbourg and Paris University. He is Chairman of SENERGY’T, a group of SMEs and technical partners specialized in energy efficiency on thermal energy transmission and distribution networks and infrastructures, which he co-founded. He also founded and managed CYMES Energie, an SME specializing in the design, integration and management of energy management solutions.
The Shifters Administrator
Representative of The Shifters association
The Shifters volunteer association has an ex officio seat on the Board of Directors of The Shift Project think tank, on which it is represented by a member of its own Board of Directors. Conversely, The Shift Project has two seats on the Board of Directors of The Shifters. The Shifters is an international network of several thousand volunteers with a wide range of backgrounds, experience and skills, but who are united by their interest in the carbon transition of the economy, whether or not they are already active in this field. Their mission is threefold: to support Shift in its work; to inform, debate and educate themselves on the economy, energy and climate; and to disseminate Shift’s ideas and work.
The Committee of Experts is responsible for the scientific rigour, which is one of the Shift core values. Members of the Committee are experts in the fields of energy, climate sciences, economics, human and social sciences. It meets once a year to take stock of current projects and propose experts in the relevant fields of scientific expertise. Its role is to ensure that working groups have the most up-to-date and accurate scientific data available to carry out their work. It does not make the final work-paper validation, but can choose to address any topic.
Mathieu Arnoux
Member of the Committee
Mathieu Arnoux is a historian, Professor of Medieval History in the Paris-Diderot University, and Director of studies and Senior Research Fellow at the EHESS. He teaches the history of work, economics, and technology in pre-industrial Europe. His main research interests are technology (iron and textile products), agrarian growth and crises, resources and renewable energy supply. He published in 2012 « Le temps des laboureurs : travail, ordre social et croissance en Europe (XIe-XIVe siècle) » (ed. Albin Michel). Since July 2015, he is Director of the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Énergies de Demain.
Pierre-René Bauquis
Member of the Committee
Expert in hydrocarbons, Pierre-René Bauquis graduated from the ENSG (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie) in 1964 and the ENSPM (Ecole Nationale Supérieure du Pétrole et des Moteurs) in Economics and Management in 1966. After five years spent as an energy economist and teacher at the IFP (Institut Francais du Pétrole), he worked for 30 years in the Total group. After twenty years in charge of the natural gas sector, Pierre-René Bauquis was successively appointed Director for the North Sea, Director of Strategy and Planning and finally Director of Gas, Electricity, and Coal. He spent the last years of his career (from 1995 to the end of 2001) as advisor to the Total group Chairman, Thierry Desmarest. He is currently Associate Professor at the ENSPM (IFP School) and Professor at the TPA (Total Professeurs Associés). He wrote many books on energy, especially oil, the most recent being “Le pétrole : quelles réserves, quelles productions et à quel prix ?” (ed. Dunod, 2017).
Dominique Dron
Member of the Committee
Senior official, graduated as ingénieure générale des Mines, Dominique Dron is a permanent member of the General Council of the Economy in France. She was graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Biology and Geology and the Agrégation master in Life and Earth Sciences. She also founded the “New energetic strategies” chair at the Mines ParisTech. Former Director of the ADEME waste program, then the Forecast and Strategy Taskforce of the French Ministry of Environment, she has been special advisor to the Ministry of Environment Jean-Louis Borloo in charge of the Grenelle of the Environment. She has also been Deputy Managing Director of Ifremer and Chief Commissioner on Sustainable Development. She wrote many books and papers about environmental issues and their challenges for the future, including financial ones.
Ivar Ekeland
Member of the Committee
Mathematician and economist, Iva Ekeland is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure. He has taught mathematics, finance and economics at the Paris-Dauphine University, École Polytechnique, École Normale Supérieure, Saint-Cyr military school and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He also was a guest lecturer in many universities worldwide. He was Chairman of the Paris-Dauphine University, President of the Scientific Committee of the École Normale Supérieure, Director of the Pacific Institute for Mathematical Science (PIMS). He is also a member of the Royal Society of Canada, and a foreign member of the Academies of Sciences of Norway, Palestine and Austria. His scientific work includes dynamics, geometrics and mathematical issues related to economics and finance. He wrote two hundred scientific papers and a dozen books, the last of which are « Le syndrome de la grenouille : l’économie et le climat » (ed. Odile Jacob, 2015) and with Étienne Lécroart the comic book “Le hasard, une approche mathématique” (Éditions du Lombard, 2016).
Gaël Giraud
Member of the Committee
Gaël Giraud is the Chief Economist of the Agence Française de Développement. His research at CNRS, where he is a senior fellow researcher, focuses on alternative measures of development, the general-equilibrium theory, game theory, finance and energy issues. Within the CODEV research program (ESSEC), he has participated in many field surveys (Nigeria, Indonesia, India…) aiming at developing an index, which would measure the quality of the social bonds, as an index of the quality of development. He is the coordinator of the Research team “Riskergy” on energy risk and sovereign debt; he is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the “Laboratoire d’Excellence” dedicated to financial regulation (LabEx ReFi). He was a member of the Committee of Experts for the French national debate on energy transition with the French government. He is Chair of “Energy and prosperity” at the Louis Bachelier Institute. He is also a member of the European NGO Finance Watch and the Nicolas Hulot Foundation.
Alain Grandjean
Member of the Committee
Alain Grandjean graduated from the École Polytechnique and from the French National School of Statistics and Economic Administration (ENSAE); he is a doctor in environmental economics. Co-founder and partner of Carbone 4, a consulting firm in carbon strategy, he is an expert and lecturer on the climate-energy theme, with a particular focus on economics and financial aspects. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Nicolas Hulot Foundation and the Economic Council for Sustainable Development to the French Ministry of Environment. In 2013, he chaired the Committee of Experts for the French national debate on energy transition. Previously, he was a member of the Rocard Commission on the carbon tax. In June 2015, he submitted with Pascal Canfin to the French president the report “ Mobilizing financing for the climate – A roadmap to finance a carbon-free economy”.
Sylvestre Huet
Member of the Committee
Graduated in history from the University Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, Sylvestre Huet is a journalist specialized in scientific information since 1986. Journalist at the French newspaper Libération from 1995 to 2016, he chaired the French Association of Scientific Journalists of the News Press from 2012 to 2013. Owning the blog {sciences²} hosted by Liberation.fr then LeMonde.fr, he wrote many books, including « Fessenheim, l’invisible et le visible » (ed. Loco, 2017) and « Les dessous de la cacophonie climatique » (ed. La ville brûle, 2015) and leads the 360 collection (ed. La ville brûle), which publishes science books.
Félix Lallemand
Secretary of the Committee
Félix Lallemand has Ph.D in ecology from National Museum of Natural History. His work focuses on the evolution of symbiotic interactions between plants and fungi. Graduated with an Agrégation master in Earth and Life Sciences, his interests are the place of life in the carbon transition: agriculture, food, use of land and biomass, the role of the biosphere in the carbon cycle, biodiversity… At the Museum, he also hosts high-school teachers and students for sessions on environment and climate issues. He is the Secretary of The Shift Project‘s Committee of Experts.
Hervé Le Treut
Member of the Committee
Climatologist, a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), Hervé Le Treut wrote a thesis on cloud modelling in the climate system. He has been a member of the French Academy of Sciences since 2005, research director at the CNRS, Director of the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL), dedicated to the study of the entire “Earth System” (changes in the climate, the greenhouse effect and ozone layer; air and oceans) and environments of other planets in the solar system. He is a professor of mechanics at the École Polytechnique, climate dynamics at the École Normale Supérieure and climate sciences at the Institute of Political Sciences (Paris) and participates in the IPCC work. He wrote several books on the climate and recently directed the collective work “The impacts of climate change in Aquitaine” (ed. Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2013).
Sandrine Maljean-Dubois
Member of the Committee
An expert in international environmental law, Sandrine Maljean-Dubois is Research Director at the CNRS in the Comparative and European Rights Laboratory (DICE) that she heads. She teaches international environmental law at the Aix-Marseille University. Member of the Environment Commission of the Club des Juristes, she actively participated in the Global Pact for the Environment. She especially published “Quel droit pour l’environnement ?” (ed. Hachette Supérieur, 2008) and « La diplomatie climatique de Rio 1992 à Paris 2015 » (ed. A. Pedone, 2015) with Matthieu Wemaëre.
Mireille Martini
Member of the Committee
Mireille Martini is an expert in finance and responsible for research and advocacy on sustainable finance for the Finance Watch Association. Graduated from the ESSEC and the University of Chicago, she worked for several years in private banks and institutions like the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development or the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations. She was co-rapporteur of the Canfin-Grandjean Commission, and contributed to the work of the Stern-Stiglitz Commission on the carbon price. With Alain Grandjean, she wrote “Financer la transition énergétique” (Editions de l’Atelier, 2016); she also translated in French the book “Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit, and Fixing Global Finance” (Princeton University Press, 2017) with Laurent Bury.
Jean-François Mouhot
Member of the Committee
Jean-François Mouhot is a Doctor in history and a research fellow at Georgetown University (Washington D.C.) and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), with a long-standing interest in energy and climate change issues. He completed his Ph.D in 2006 at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy). Jean François Mouhot has previously studied and taught history in France, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Italy (at the European University Institute) and the United States. His book “Des esclaves énergétiques : Réflexions sur le changement climatique” (ed. Champ Vallon, 2011) shows how the use of fossil fuels and the industrial revolution have both contributed to the abolition of slavery. Since 2013, he works for the Association A Rocha as director of the Courmettes center in the Alpes Maritimes region.
Pedro Prieto
Member of the Committee
Pedro Prieto is a Spanish telecommunication engineer and expert in photovoltaic systems. He held various engineering, business, and management positions at Alcatel until 2002, then worked on photovoltaic projects. He is the Vice-president of the association AEREN (Asociación para el Estudio de los Recursos Energéticos), which represents the ASPO (International Association for the Study of Peak Oil) in Spain and is part of its International Committee. In 2013, he published a detailed study of the Energy Return On Investment (EROI) of the Spanish production of photovoltaic energy: “Spain’s photovoltaic revolution: The Energy Return on Investment” with the American researcher and father of EROI concept Charles A.S. Hall.
Georges Sapy
Member of the Committee
Georges Sapy is an expert in electrical systems (means of production and grids) graduated of both Ecole des Arts et Métiers and Supélec. He worked for more than 25 years on major electrical infrastructure projects (nuclear and thermal power plants), in France and abroad, especially in China. He then was an expert for the International Atomic Energy Agency. He wrote several books, including “Introduction à l’ingénierie des installations nucléaires” (ed. EDP Sciences, 2012), “Communiquer avec les chinois – Clés pour réussir vos négociations” (Ed. Editions d’Organisation, 2003), “La transition énergétique : pourquoi et comment elle va changer votre vie” (ed. L’Harmattan, 2013) and “Faut-il avoir peur de nos centrales nucléaires ? Pourra-t-on s’en passer ?” (ed. L’Harmattan, 2015).
Jacques Treiner
Chairman of the Committee
Jacques Treiner is a physicist and a former Professor at the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris). He created and teaches a course on ”The Future of the planet: population, energy, climate” at the Institute of Political Sciences (Paris).
He runs the Ile-de-France Association “Save the Climate”, and chaired the group of experts who wrote the physics and chemistry programs for the general and technological high schools in France between 2000 and 2011. He wrote more than 60 scientific papers in the field of quantum fluids, and also made several scientific films, science textbooks and wrote a play at the Théâtre de la Reine Blanche in June 2017. He also translated the book of the Australian philosopher Clive Hamilton “Requiem for the human species, facing the reality of climate change” (ed. Presses de Science Po, 2013) and the book of the American science historians Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway “Merchants of doubt: or how a handful of scientists have hidden the truth about social issues such as smoking and global warming” (ed. Le Pommier, 2012). He recently published “Un peu de science ça ne peut pas faire de mal” (ed. Cassini, 2017). He chairs The Shift Project‘s Committee of Experts.
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele
Member of the Committee
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele is a climatologist and has a PhD in Physics. He is a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain and a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. He has been one of the Lead Authors and Review Editors for the IPCC from 2002 to 2015 and IPCC vice-chair from 2008 to 2015. He specializes in climate-change modelling and the impact of human activities on climate. He wrote several scientific papers on climate, including the economic and geographical implications of climate change and sustainable development. Since 1993, he is a member of the Belgian Federal Council for Sustainable Development and chairs the Council Working Group on “Energy and Climate” since 1998. He has been the climate advisor for the Belgian delegations to most of the Conferences of Parties to the Climate Convention (and also for the Fiji Islands in 2017). Jean-Pascal van Ypersele was the Vice-chair of the IPCC from 2008 to 2015. In 2016, the UN Secretary-General appointed him co-editor of GSDR 2019 (World Report on Sustainable Development). He recently published “Une vie au cœur des turbulences climatiques” (ed. De Boeck Superior, 2015).
Robert Vautard
Member of the Committee
Robert Vautard is a climatologist specialized in air pollution and local climate change and Research Director at the CNRS and École Polytechnique. Graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and doctor in meteorology and oceanography, his recent work in the Laboratory of Environmental and Climate Sciences focuses on regional-scale climate and energy modelling and the connection between climate change and extreme weather events. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Airparif and Scientific Council of the National Institute of Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS).
Olivier Vidal
Member of the Committee
Olivier Vidal is a director of studies at CNRS. Doctor in geology graduated from Paris VI University, he worked at the geology laboratory of ENS, at Bochum Mineralogy Institute, at CEA (French atomic energy commission), at South West Research Institute (Texas) and at Earth Sciences Institute of Grenoble. First, he was specialized in thermodynamic modelisation of mineralogic reactions, he is now interested in modelisation of links between demand and production of mineral resources in an energy transition context, implying geologists, materials researchers, economists and researchers in human and social sciences. He is the author of « Mineral Resources and Energy: future stakes in energy transition » (ISTE Press Ltd, 2018) and « Ressources minérales et énergie dans le contexte de la transition énergétique : observations et modélisation ».
Friedrich Wagner
Member of the Committee
Friedrich Wagner is a German physicist. He headed the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching/Greifswald and is Professor Emeritus at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University in Greifswald. From 1986 to 2013, he led several research projects on fusion in Germany and Russia. In 2009, he was decorated with Stern-Gerlach Medal, the highest award of the German Society of Physics for Experimental Physics, for his research work on fusion and high-temperature plasma physics. He was president of the European Society of Physics from 2007 to 2009. In recent years, he studied the properties of electrical systems in the context of the integration of renewable energies.
The Shift Project is supported by industry leaders who want to make the energy transition their strategic priority. So the members are generally large companies. The opinions of The Shift Project do not necessarily reflect the ones of its members. This way of funding, fully assumed, does not question the intellectual independence of The Shift Project and the general-interest purpose of its works.
Our members – College of Major Donors
Our members – College of Donors
Sponsors of our current projects
Support us
- Membership (subject to approval by the association’s Board) is generally reserved for companies. The minimum membership fee is €10,000, based on turnover:
Turnover < €500m: minimum membership fee of €10,000
Turnover < €500m ≤ €1bn: €25,000 minimum membership fee
Turnover ≥ €1bn: €50,000 minimum membership fee - Through their donations, sponsors help to finance one or more specific projects.
As The Shift Project is a public-interest association, 60% of funding in the case of a legal entity (up to a limit of €10,000 or 5 ‰ of turnover excluding tax) is deductible from corporation tax, and 66% for individuals.
Who to contact ?
Please contact our partnerships manager at selma.chanemougame@theshiftproject.org.
In addition, we are launching a Call to Companies, aimed at anyone who is aware of our cause and would like to be involved in our work.
Who can support the Shift?
In principle, any company or organisation can fund the Shift. However, all applications are subject to approval by the Board, which reserves the right to decide whether or not to accept them. The key question is whether the think tank’s approach is compatible with the spirit and values of the applicant. Le Shift pays particular attention to creating a group that is homogeneous in terms of objectives and values. For example, we can’t imagine welcoming an arms or tobacco merchant.
Why become a Shift member?
To take part in the world’s greatest rescue operation! And more seriously :
- To join other economic players and build a post-carbon society together
- Access unique resources and original expertise on the energy transition
- Take part in exclusive events bringing together economic and political decision-makers
- Be kept informed of operational work and the choice of topics covered
- Contribute, where possible, to think tank working groups, developing balanced and innovative proposals and building consensus
- Participate in the think tank’s statutory meetings (Board, AGM) and in the development of its strategic guidelines
The Shift Project is a general interest association under the French Law of 1901 [Download our statutes here]
Two types of sponsors
- Members: members who commit to pay a yearly contribution between €25,000 and €100,000 to The Shift Project, according to scale based on turnover.
- Patrons: organizations who contribute by funding one or several earmarked projects, or who pay a contribution of €25,000 at the most.
In both cases, since The Shift Project is a non-profit association under the 1901 law, membership is 60% tax-deductible.
Accounting documents
- Auditor’s report on the annual accounts for the year 2010 (French)
- Auditor’s report on the annual accounts for the year 2011 (French)
- Auditor’s report on the annual accounts for the year 2012 (French)
- Auditor’s report on the annual accounts for the year 2013 (French)
- Auditor’s report on the annual accounts for the year 2014 (French)
- Auditor’s report on the annual accounts for the year 2015 (French)
- Auditor’s report on the annual accounts for the year 2016 (French)
- Auditor’s report on the annual accounts for the year 2017 (French)
- Auditor’s report on the annual accounts for the year 2018 (French)
- Auditor’s report on the annual accounts for the year 2019 (French)
Budget per expenditure item
Administrator functions, members of the Internal Committee and members of the Committee of Experts are not paid. Activities of the Chairman are also unpaid.
We have done our best to provide detailed and, we hope, satisfactory answers to questions you might have about The Shift Project (TSP). Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need more information to complete what is written below.
What is our legal structure?
Our Association was created on 31 March 2009 and registered with the Paris Prefecture on 05 January 2010, under number W751203033, according to the French Law of 1901. TSP was given public interest status in 2010 and is authorised to issue tax receipts. We are a not-for-profit association.
The transition to a low-carbon society is one of the main challenges facing humanity today. TSP’s goal is to reflect on transition measures that work for the public interest. We do not sell services, and this is one of the major differences between ourselves and a consultancy firm.
How is The Shift Project managed?
Like most associations, the Shift is managed by an Executive Committee and a Board of Administrators (BA). On a daily basis, it is managed by our director, Matthieu Auzanneau, and his team.
The Executive Committee is composed of a Chairperson, Jean-Marc Jancovici, a Deputy Chairperson, Geneviève Ferone, and a Deputy Chairperson and Treasurer, Michel Lepetit.
The Board of Administrators is composed of the Executive Committee members and representatives of partner members and benefactors.
In the Board, Administrators are elected among the funding members at the General Meeting. They play a vital role by representing the association in civil matters. The Board, usually at the Chairperson’s request, decides upon the operational activities of TSP and when necessary, sets out the main operating principles for the Association, the core components of which are governed by the statutes. It also ensures that they are fully implemented. The decisions of the Board are made by simple majority; each Administrator has a single vote. In the case of an equal split, the vote of the Chairperson carries the most weight.
A General Meeting is convened once a year by the Chairperson and is attended by all members of the association.
Who can be a member of The Shift Project?
In theory, anyone. However, under the terms of the statutes, all applications must be submitted to the Executive Committee of the Board of Administrators. The Executive Committee reserves the right to reject membership to anyone who would not share our state of mind, like an arms dealer or a tobacco company.
Our way of working is “each according to their means”. It makes sense to ask larger companies for more funds than smaller businesses or individuals, and it is therefore the biggest companies, which fund most of our operations.
The duties of Administrators and Executive Committee Members are non-remunerated. This applies in particular to the Chairperson who offers his or her services free of charge.
For more information, visit the “Contact us” page.
Who funds us?
Most of our resources are provided by our members, who finance us for specific projects. However, we also plan to conduct operational research-related activities. We hope in the future to be able to seek other financing options, allocated to specific projects. We are halfway between a think tank financed by private funds (looking for answers to unresolved issues), and a lobbying organisation (trying to further a cause), as we strive to make concrete proposals to make the economy carbon-free.
Go to the corresponding page to see who TSP’s members are.
Our accounts are signed off by a financial auditor and may be viewed on this website (in French).
What do you get from membership?
Apart from feeling like a superhero… you will :
- be associated with operational activities on preferential terms (see below for the powerful influence this gives you). Because of this, members don’t have the potential right to send employees to work groups, but the possibility exists if it furthers the critical reflection process. The most obvious case is the expertise provided by member companies or learning establishments.
- participate in TSP sessions, as well as the Board of Administrators and General Assembly meetings. These are not the most exciting Shift meetings, but members have their say on strategic decisions concerning TSP governance and have voting rights for the Board of Administrators.
- be asked to participate in events organised by TSP and assist in their organisation both logistically (premises, equipment, services), and for content and communication (speakers, expertise, etc.).
Just as with a think tank, members who finance the Shift have the right to monitor the choice of subjects. In a think tank, the financiers – whether public or private – provide their input on resource allocation, but, fortunately, this does not entitle them to censor any research results. When they join the Shift, all of our members are entitled to provide an opinion on the direction of our work, but they all pledge not to intervene in what we do.
What role does the Expert Committee have in our work?
The Expert Committee (EC) is composed of experts in the field of energy, climate sciences, economics and human sciences. The number of members and composition of the committee are not fixed.
The role of the Expert Committee is first and foremost to assist us in our work with subject matters in accordance with the very latest scientific and technical knowledge, particularly on energy and climate. The Council guides us on sources to use, and is of course given complete freedom to provide an opinion or a critique on the operational issues dealt with by TSP, and on the creation of work groups.
On the other hand, it is not the role of the Expert Committee to “rubber stamp” the proposals that we submit for debate. Members are therefore in no way bound by the operational conclusions provided by The Shift Project. They remain completely free to make their own assessments of our work and may express these publicly. Each member attends in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the institution(s) to which he or she belongs. There is no compensation for meeting attendance.
In addition to their direct contribution to production quality, the existence of this Committee provides an additional safeguard against any external or internal pressures that could result in established facts being ignored, distorted or misrepresented. Additional security is provided by the fact that the funds made available to us will be used in accordance with the objectives set out in the statutes.
What makes us different from a Science Laboratory?
As stated previously, there are strong similarities in terms of our operating methods and financing. We work on specific subjects, on the basis of the financial means placed at our disposal, and we present the results of our research in a transparent manner.
What sets us apart is our position in public debate. Our aim is to offer operational solutions for transitions to a carbon-free economy while ensuring public debate on the issue. More than a mere think tank, we want to be an “action-tank” and a force providing concrete proposals.
Who are we addressing?
Our primary target group can be described as ‘intermediaries’, by which we mean all those individuals whose analyses or work provide the raw material for economic and political decision-making.
- Economic decision-makers : In the world of economics, we target company CEOs, heads of industry federations or unions, directors of institutes and –more widely– opinion leaders at European and international levels.
- The academic and technical world exerts a great deal of influence –often via the media– on the world of economics. We therefore seek to engage in jointly-conducted scientific and economic projects with research laboratories, graduate schools, other institutes and think tanks.
- Media and NGOs : The most striking messages generated by the work done by TSP will be communicated to the media and, in some cases, to selected opinion-forming channels in the non-profit and employee representative sectors, with which we maintain close and regular contact.
- The world of politics -which includes European Community decision-makers and the heads of influential international bodies– is clearly one of the ultimate targets for TSP proposals. However, our main focus will be on reaching this group by relying on selected economic actors to convey the propositions we bring forward.
- The general public is not one of our primary targets, but it will clearly be affected by the opinion channels with which TSP interacts.
Why do we work with large companies, which are, as we all know, terrible, incorrigible polluters?
When attempting to “make change of heart” on the collective choices taken by a nation (not just in terms of environment as, the same scenario applies in economics or politics), there are two ways of looking at things:
- The first way consists in thinking that he who has already sinned once – and benefited from it – must irrevocably be ruled out of any thinking about the “right” way of doing things in the future. To put it another way, he who has sinned can no longer be relied upon to do good. That would mean, in this case, that anyone who has used fossil fuels, and made substantial profits from it, should no longer have any input in searching for a carbon-free solution. However this may let one with quite few people to speak with!
- The second way consists in taking the view that since the community is made of individuals – or actors – who have all sinned at least once (used petrol, gas or coal at least once), what we should have in mind is more akin to redemption – or conversion – than to the irrevocable exclusion of sinners, at least if we want to have a transition occurring without violent conflict.
At TSP, we do not agree with this first option. Other organisations have gone this route (a necessary one since we need bio-diversity in our actions). For our part, we would like to explore the second option, as we are convinced – on the basis of a number of fairly probative historical precedents – that there is no other way of achieving a swift and non-violent transition. This is TSP’s strategic position: establishing a dialogue with large companies on climate and energy, hoping that it will make them conclude that the transition is also the best option for them, and they should adopt this mindset.
Tocqueville wrote, 150 years ago, that within a democracy, no significant change will take place unless major economic interests act in support of the desired change, and history has often proven him right. TSP wants to use the lessons of the past rather than ignore them!
Moreover, we need means in order to live. If we wish to conduct operational research on how to make the economy carbon-free, where are we to find such means? Not easily within the research grants already distributed by a number of institutions (Europe, French National Research Agency), etc. Obtaining these requires lengthy procedures which tend to favour large, established institutions, and – quite surprisingly – a certain degree of conformity. Very often you need to set out in great detail what you intend to do, whereas basically we don’t have any idea yet! The subscriptions of our members are more like a contract of trust, with strict requirements in terms of process but greater leniency in terms of the precise detailing of future output.
We are in a race against the clock. Faced with on-the-ground reality, and using a process of elimination, we realize that the only source that can be rapidly rallied with a light-touch organisation is corporate sponsorship. Following this line of thought, we need to target those who think they may rank among the winners in the game.
What about the risk of becoming a handmaiden?
Any initiative has risks associated with it. Clearly, our relationship with our financiers may at times seem far from equal. But for the reasons given above, we have resolved to give it a try, taking every possible precaution to limit the negative consequences. We hope that the quality and transparency of our work will be the hallmark of our independence.
Now is the time to react and unite all climate and energy players!