Good afternoon everybody. My name is Barry Colfer and I'm the director of search here at the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin. I'm pleased to welcome you to this webinar on the future of France, the 2022 French presidential election. We're really delighted to be joined by two leading experts in this topic and friends of the Institute, Lara Marlowe, Paris correspondent at the Irish Times, and Emmanuel Sean Quinlivan, lecturer in European politics at UCC. We've both been generous enough to take time out of their schedules to discuss the important forthcoming French presidential elections. Momentarily Lara and Emmanuel will speak for approximately 10 minutes each, and then we will go to questions and answers with you the audience. You'll be able to join the discussion using the Q&A function on Zoom, as usual, which you should see on your screen. Please feel free to send any questions in throughout the session as they occur to you and we'll get through as many of them as possible once our speakers have concluded their opening remarks. A reminder that today's presentation and Q&A are both on the record. Please also feel free to join the discussion on Twitter using the handle at IEA. I'll now formally introduce our speakers and we'll then hand the floor over first to Lara and then to Emmanuel before the Q&A. Lara Marlowe is a Paris-based foreign correspondent for the Irish Times. As a journalist for more than three decades working for Time Magazine and the Irish Times, Lara has lived in Paris, the Middle East and Washington DC. She's a recipient of the Lesion Donneur and has written three books, including her most recent Love in a Time of War with Apollo Press. Many of you, of course, will also have been following Lara's incredible coverage of the atrocious conflicts in Ukraine over recent weeks. Dr. Manuel Jean-Claude Levin is a lecturer in European politics at the Department of Government at UCC, University College Cork, where she teaches French politics, comparative politics and European policymaking. Dr. Jean-Claude Levin also holds a chair in active European citizenship and is the director of UCC's hub in active European engagement. I'm a PhD from UCD. I'm at my alma mater. And between 2017 and 2019, she led a Jean Monnet project entitled My Big Friendly Guide to the European Union, co-funded by the European Commission, communicating Europe initiative with DFA and Cork City Council. Thank you both very much for being with us. I'm looking forward to the discussion and Lara, the floor is yours. Thank you, Barry. Hello, everybody. I'm still, despite the whole pandemic, I'm still not used to just seeing myself on the screen and talking to a computer, but it does enable us to do this today. This election has been really an election foretold for ages, for months, maybe for a year. We are expecting a repeat of more or less what happened in 2017, which was Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen being the two finalists qualifying next Sunday night for the runoff. And then everyone, most people expect Macron to defeat Le Pen again, albeit by a much narrower margin this time. She's actually progressed a great deal in her process of de-diabolization or undiminishing herself, I suppose we would say. She has a lot of people even question whether or not she's really right-wing now, which is quite shocking in a lot of ways. It has been a hard five years for Emmanuel Macron. He had three huge crises, the Gilles Lejeune revolt in 2018 and 2019, the pandemic for the last two years, and now the war in Ukraine. In fact, one of his advantages in the election is that he is seen by 64%, according to a call of French people, to be capable of handling a grave crisis. And he's seen as having let go of the stuff, the making of a president, whereas Marine Le Pen scores only 39% on that same criterion. Marine Le Pen's greatest challenge and perhaps more recently her greatest blessing has come from Eric Zemur, who emerged suddenly at the end of last summer as a challenger to her. And they were equal in the polls. I think they were both at 15-16% for a while. He was plummeted in the last, since the war started in Ukraine, because he said that Putin was justified in doing what he did. He said that Ukraine had always been part of Russia. They spoke the same language until the 13th century. He didn't explain about the last eight centuries, what that meant. He said that Ukrainian refugees were migrants like anybody else. And so he's, he's, he has now fallen to 9% in the poll published yesterday and he would remember he was up at sort of 16%. But he still is a reserve of votes for Marine Le Pen. He gets the 22% predicted, plus, you know, Zemur is 9%, that puts her already over a third of the vote without counting all the people from les républicains, from the mainstream conservative party who might vote for her over Macron. So the other, the other surprises, I mean, there, there is a surprise in the last week, actually over the last three weeks, Le Pen has narrowed the gap between her and Macron quite dramatically. And she was at, I think it was 17, let's see, she, well, there was a 13 point percentage points difference between them in mid-March. Macron was at 30% and she was at 17%. And now that that point difference is only six instead of 13. So she definitely has momentum. That's worrying a lot of people. Although the, the main poll published by Les Ecoles yesterday predicts that Macron would win 53% of the vote and 47% for Le Pen. So a few polls that actually show Le Pen winning. So I don't need to tell you that would be an absolute seismic huge event for France for Europe, it would be, it would be pretty dramatic if that happened. The other thing that happened, a smaller surprise, which seems to possibly be receiving is that Jean-Luc Mélenchon from the far left, La France Insoumise, France Unbowed is now firmly in third place. So he's moved way up in the polls. And although he fell one percentage point, strangely enough, a certain number of his voters would probably go to Le Pen on the far right. So he's another reserve for her. Another, I remember Patty Smith who may be listening to us today who was my foreign editor at the Irish Times used to quote some British Prime Minister saying events, dear boy events and certainly we've had surprises in past campaigns. You remember the scandal that did for Francois Fillon, five years ago. There have been a couple of things that have come up, news events, not on that scale, but they, they could both hurt Macron. What is the McKinsey scandal, the McKinsey consulting group, big American firm, which you remember the governor of the European Central Bank worked for in Chicago. And McKinsey turns out Macron's government has commissioned a billion euros worth of studies from McKinsey consultants. And this is very unpopular France as you know has a huge civil service and people say well they should have been using civil servants. And people point out that this is far less than the consultants reports commissioned in Germany, and they say it was high, most of it, three quarters of it was high tech stuff like the tooth anti COVID app on the telephones and so on. But that's that's one a lot of people are very angry about that I'm personally not thrilled to have my tax euros going to pay McKinsey consultants. But anyway that that's been a big scandal and the opposition is trying to make a big deal of it. More recently, a disabled Jewish boy called Jeremy Cohen was pursued by some, I believe Arab youths in somewhere near Paris and he was run over by a tram and died. And the police initially said it was an accident people are screaming this is a cover up that it was called an accident. And it brings to mind at Eric Zemmour's big rally at the Place du Trocadero. There were people chanting Macron assassin Macron murderer, and they were alluding to accusations made by the more who held Macron responsible for the murder of two old Jewish women in eastern Paris by Arab neighbors.  But that's that's part of the, the ambiance of this election is that the far right is accusing Macron of not having been tough enough on security and immigrants and Arabs and Islam. Very quickly, if, if, what is the difference, you know between Macron, Le Pen, Macron, again is portraying the difference as a battle between progressives on his side and nationalist populist on Marine Le Pen side. Macron actually got two things quite wrong in foreign policy, although that's his probably his strongest suit. One is he thought that one could deal with Vladimir Putin that one could be frantic and one should have dialogue with with Putin. He's still talking to Putin on the phone or on by video link very often. And he also was very gung-ho very keen on promoting European defense as something independent from NATO, and the war in Ukraine has shown that to have been kind of misguided as well because the video comes out of it very, very much reinforced. But nobody I haven't heard anyone in France reproaching him for those things. He, I think he's done, he's dealt with the economy quite well. One, another one of his boasts is that unemployment is only 7.4% he says it's the lowest it's been in 15 years that's disputed by his opponents, but it certainly is much better than it was. I wonder though he's telling the French they will have to work longer and harder, which is never a terribly popular proposition and he wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65. I fear that may lose him a few votes as well. But he also, the part of Macron's problem is he's all the time he always, you know, on the one hand on the other hand at the same time. It's very hard to read a kind of vision or continuity and what he's saying. And I'll give you one example of that. He's saying that people who get the RSA, the revenue to solidarity. What is it? So anyway, it's the basic welfare payment, but they will have to do 15 or 20 hours a week of training or activity. And at the same time, he's offering a pre Macron bonus to workers of up to 6000 euro a year. It's the employers have to pay it but it's free of tax and free of social charges. I would say his other shortcoming is he's just terribly long winded he took four hours to present his program.  Vladimir Putin actually said probably the only funny remark he ever said was that Macron had tortured him with his verbosity. And I think I'm running over time so I'll try to speed up a little bit here. Has done a very good campaign by just about everyone's evaluation she has managed to portray herself as very close to the people. And the fact that virtually everyone in France refers to her simply as Marine. And they don't refer to Macron as a manual shows that she does have she does seem to have the common touch. She's made a she's talked a lot about purchasing power, which polls show is the number one concern of the French and her way of dealing with that is to reduce VAT on energy from 20% to 5.5%. She's also some people who question whether she's far right. Well, she she supports, she supported same sex marriage. She supports the welfare state, and she wants retirement at age 60, rather than 65, which you know it's it's like Christmas for everybody. But her to I think she still can be qualified as extreme right because her, the two pillars of her campaign are anti immigration and anti Islam. For example, she wants to ban the wearing of the Islamic headscarf everywhere, everywhere in public in France, which is, which is pretty severe measure. She wants to block welfare payments for the parents of delinquent minors. She wants to actually change the French Constitution to establish what she calls the national priority. She wants jobs, public housing, hospital beds, every benefit will go first to French people and all after all the French people have been served then we'll see about the foreigners, and she also wants to renegotiate European text and treaties. I would say that her election, even though she no longer says she wants to leave the EU, it would, in effect, be a frexit. It would, it would mean France virtually leaving the EU. So I'll hand it over to Emmanuel now. And indeed I was really curious there about the notion of frexit and I hope Manuel may comment on that. But just before Manuel if I might just intrude for a moment because so much of what Lara said there is of enormous interest and we'll get on to it in the questions and answers. I'm just really curious that one thing, Lara, was that you said from Les Echos, a recent poll was 47% of people are indicating support for Marine Le Pen. No, this is what they do. I mean France has this crazy system of two or two round presidential election, I believe that the only people in the world who do it this way. So it's what they call the Roppel des Voids. Who will you vote? Well actually in Ireland there's a, there's something kind of similar where your vote, I've never understood it. I'll go into the Irish system. But the pollsters, what they do is, okay for the first round we know the panoply the range. The second round because we're not certain it will be Macron Le Pen. The pollsters asked people if it's Macron Le Pen in the second run in the runoff. Who would you vote for in the runoff. And the result of this poll, which was done by opinion way KL partners for Les Echos was that Macron would get 53% and Le Pen would get 47%. A simple question that would I'm sure draw a complicated answer but if you have anything simple to say on the composition of that group Lara, compared to five years ago because so much has changed since the last president and five years ago Macron won 66% of the vote in the runoff and the pen got but 40, no 34. Yes, 34%. So it was 34, 66. So this shows you how dramatically the gap has narrowed. And is there any sense of what the composition of that has been like who what sort of socially you mean socially in terms of identity profile of any kind what sort of people are being more drawn to to Marine Le Pen now than five years ago, if you can comment. Well, I mean, over city dwellers vote for Macron, the more educated you are the richer you are the more likely you are to vote for Macron. The poor you are the more rural, you are the more likely you are to vote for Le Pen, but she is in the younger people prefer Le Pen as well older people prefer Macron. And I think it would just be a strengthening of those trends or tendencies is my my feeling for it. I think Le Pen has probably gained a lot from the mainstream right. There's certain kind of. Well, actually it was a more was was getting people like COT, who's a deputy from the Republican had actually said he would rather vote for the more than for for Macron. And certainly there will be people on the right, who would he would vote for for Le Pen. The opposition or saying, don't vote for Pecret, Valerie Pecret, who's the official candidate of the Republican is tied with the more now at 9%. And people are saying, don't vote for Pecret, a vote for Pecret is a vote for Macron, she Macras, Macras, Pecret and Macron are the same thing. At one point Pecret accused Macron of having stolen from her her program, but now he's kind of he's kind of veering right, I'm sorry he's veering left at the last few days of the campaign and his big rally he said he channeled Francois Mitterrand we talked about and he's talking now about a lot of social measures and education and childhood and gender parity and these sorts of things. Thank you so much, I'm manual thank you for indulging me that is with with that question. And over to you manual you you've 10 minutes. Thank you very much for inviting me first of all. And yes, just to follow from what Laura said I'd like to have a look at Europe as a structuring theme of the 2022 campaign. So unlike in 2017 when actually Europe was was really present in everybody's program and everybody's in the festival. It's not really there in 2022. And you, Laura alluded to it, but several candidates have actually changed their position on the European Union.  He's not on this line he's changed. And he's talking about disobedience. Lara mentioned my in Le Pen's position, who was advocating because she was advised by Philip or leaving the Eurozone that actually scared a lot of her voters. So she rode back on this. And as Lara mentioned, and it's interesting that Lara thinks it's a frenzied. She's obviously not presenting it like this because she doesn't want to scare away voters. So if there's anything about Europe that candidates have probably learned is that they shouldn't indicate any type of Brexit or any type of leaving the European Union or the Eurozone. But what Le Pen puts in her manifesto is staying in the European Union without following the rules. And she clearly states it we will not follow the EU rules. So that's that's quite interesting. Even when you look at Emmanuel Macron, who in his 2017 manifesto had 43 mentions of Europe or European. When you look at the 2022 manifesto there are only 18 mentions of the same Europe or European. Macron's candidacy was official candidacy was delayed. So there were lots of rumors on the structuring of his manifesto. And there were rumors that you'd have four packs, a generational pact, a production pact, a Republican pact, and that the fourth one would be European pact. But actually it came out with only three packs. So Europe is weaved into the program. Certainly Macron hasn't lost his European credentials. But when you look at his manifesto it's all about a very protecting France and it's much more about France at the forefront than actually Europe. So, so that's quite interesting. Looking at, you know, if you have to color code the 12 different candidates, there are only really three that are pro European, you know, that are openly supporting the European Union as it is or towards further integration and that's Yannick Jadot is the only one who has several pages on Europe about European environmental treaty, and he specifically mentions a federal Europe. And he's the only candidate to do this. And obviously Emmanuel Macron, I would categorize as pro European, obviously. Interestingly, Europe burst onto the campaign scene because France took the presidency of the Council of the European Union. And first of January, the government across France decided to hang the European flag in different kind of key landmarks. And one of them was under the Act de Triomphe where the soldin connu lies and that created a huge controversy. Le Pen in particular went all the way to Le Conseil d'État, our highest administrative court to ask for the flag to come down, that it was a disgrace that the French flag had been displaced when actually the French flag doesn't fly permanently under the Act de Triomphe. So that was the first kind of obviously controversy and mention of Europe in the campaign. Interestingly, the flag was taken down two days later simply because, you know, that was the timing of it. It was just a signal that France was taking the presidency of the Council. And then it was put up again on the 10th of March when there was this Council meeting in Versailles and actually it didn't trigger any comment then. So that's how Europe was put into the campaign. Obviously, you know, the Macron's candidacy was delayed and Lara mentioned that the war in Ukraine played a huge part. You had several candidates and consultants or advisors who argued that the war in Ukraine has robbed the presidential campaign, the outgoing president, so Macron postponed until the 3rd of March to declare that he was a candidate. And it has left the existing candidates in this kind of ambiguous situation where they feel they need to show national and European unity, but at the same time the French presidential campaign is one of our most political and politicized moment of our republic. So, necessarily, they have felt kind of in between two repulsed and found this campaign really uneasy. Certainly, the candidates that have experienced have also been the most favored by the electorate. So we have Macron, Le Pen and Mélenchon, who have the experience of campaigning, who have kind of the stature and it's no surprise that they're the top three in the polls. And the other aspect that I'd like to mention is that France has a large proportion of pro-Putin or anti-nato politicians compared with the rest of Europe. So the war in Ukraine, the relations with Russia, the relations with Putin, two different things have been really at the centre of the campaign. I just want to maybe mention a couple of things still. So in my mind, the European Union has been omnipresent due to the COVID crisis and the war in Ukraine. We had obviously the vaccines. We had the next generation EU programme that was, you know, discussed. We had the green transition through the European Green Deal and just very recently the bulk gas purchases as well. So putting really the European Union at the heart of our daily lives. At the same time, it will be interesting to see how the election actually goes, because we have just had Orban being re-elected and creating a lot of hesitancy or trouble within the European partners. Obviously Lupin was one of the first ones to congratulate Orban. Orban straight away criticising Zelensky and showing his support towards Putin. So here this European unity will be in trouble pretty quickly. And Macron is putting on the agenda, the auditioning of Hungary regarding Article 7 potential sanctions. So this is something that the French presidency is going to try and push. At the same time, the rule of law issues will be quite at the heart of the campaign but also what's coming after. And regarding what it means for Ireland, this particular election, I think if it is Macron who wins, it will be more of the same. He's still pushing for the minimum corporate tax, which has been put on hold just there by a vote of several countries, Poland, Sweden, Estonia and Malta. But certainly Le Maire wants to put it back on the agenda in April and there will be a constant push. This has been an agenda for a long time. It has the momentum and it's certainly going to happen, but Macron will push for further reforms of the Economic Monetary Union and a push on European defence. And what Lara mentioned is very interesting because France has always had this idea that there would be a European defence independent of NATO. And I think Gérard Avot, who's a former French ambassador to the US, has always said, we have to be pragmatic. Like we have to build a European defence pillar within NATO and I think the war in Ukraine has again highlighted to France that the partners will not build. If there is a push for European defence by them, it will be within NATO. And I think France is coming down to this compromise slowly, but surely, but it will be nonetheless a push on European defence. What I want to finish on is the fact that whether it's Macron or whether it's Le Pen, in my opinion, the main election isn't this one. The main election is the legislative election because for either of them, it's going to be difficult to have a majority in the National Assembly. Macron has got very, well, En Marche or L'Arène has got very shallow roots across France, but Le Front National, just the same, we've seen it in regional elections. They didn't manage to get a region and I can't see Marine Le Pen getting an overall majority. So it's either coalition government, which is always problematic, or it is a cohabitation and I wouldn't rule out a cohabitation. Which means that in case of a cohabitation, neither Macron nor Le Pen will actually be the real deciders at European level. Like it's the Prime Minister for a lot of the decisions that will represent France in councils and etc. So I would say it's, of course it would be, as Lara mentioned, a seismic change and a seismic vote if Marine Le Pen was president. And it would signal issues regarding European values and etc. But let's keep in mind the next election, which works in tandem with the presidential election and will have an impact on Europe and as well for Ireland then. Thank you so much Manuel. I'll turn to Lara in a moment, Lara, if you have any immediate comments before going to the questions and answers. But Manuel, just something you were saying there. Am I right to say there is one of the biggest gaps between the presidential, the second round, the presidential and the legislative. Specifically on that, are there any specific implications about the length of time you could comment on? And also, I don't know the extent to which there's truth in this, but I had read possibility of Mr Sarkozy re-emerging as a player in advance of the legislative. Is there any truth in that or is that just parlor talk? Okay, that's several points. So yes, it is the biggest gap ever in time between the two elections. Since we moved to the taekwondo. And there are certainly, there were rumors that Macron was even thinking about dissolving the National Assembly to bring those elections earlier. Now, this is usually seen as a gimmick by the electorate. So it can backfire quite badly. And, you know, Jacques Chirac could tell a lot to Emmanuel Macron about using the dissolution for your own purposes. So that's something that has disappeared. So I think Emmanuel Macron has probably pushed it back. Yes, there will be, you know, Zemmour, for example, is preparing for the legislative elections.  What he's looking at is the reconfiguration of the right here and stealing as many Leret-Publican voters as possible and quite trying to reconfigure then a right that is much more conservative and is eating up Marien Le Pen's electorate because there's a real question mark whether Marien Le Pen will go for a fourth if she's not elected this time, a fourth candidacy. So these two months will be quite crucial, yeah, in terms of deciding what's going to happen next. It's extremely interesting both of you. It's such a pleasure to hear your reflections and we have a huge amount of questions and obviously, but I did say Lara just in case, is there anything that you'd like to respond to what Emmanuel said or should I carry on with the questions. The only thing I would comment on, I mean, I agreed with 99% of what Emmanuel said, I'm not sure that the legislative elections are that important for the simple reason that the French president is virtually a monarch. He does what he wants to and we've seen it under Macron's rule, his own majority which I think is made no longer be a majority because some people left it, it was pretty borderline anyway. They were constantly complaining the president doesn't pay any attention to us, he never invites us to the 80s, he doesn't talk to us. He pretty much ignored his own majority. And okay they need the legislature to pass laws but the president can actually govern more or less by decree, if he wants to, Macron has done a certain amount by decree. And I think that, regardless of the results, les républicains will be a sort of reservoir for either Macron or Le Pen. I was at a think tank conference the other day here in Paris and the Dominique Rainier who's an expert on the French right was saying that he expects if Le Pen does is in the run off a certain number of the far, the further right. Les républicains, people like Cioti, Vauquiez may come out and actually support Le Pen and say well you know it's the best thing for the country or if she wins anyway they will. And I could very well imagine her having a prime minister from les républicains and remember Macron has had two prime ministers from les républicains, both of his prime ministers. So I think, yes, it might be a form of cohabitation and if so, in either case it would be with les républicains. But Emmanuel is right that the extreme right always does poorly in legislative elections. The system is rigged that way. In fact Macron promised on Saturday he would look at that so that representation was more fair that he would reform that system. But Mitterrand had changed it to favor the foreign national in the old days and then it was changed back. But the extreme right, the extremes do very poorly and les républicains it's kind of ironic. Valerie Peckress will probably not do very well, but I would expect them to do much better in the legislative elections because they're very rooted in the territory on the ground, out in the provinces, whatever they basically own the Senate. And they usually do quite well in the National Assembly as well. Everyone loves the French election. It's so exciting. There is a huge amount of questions. So I'm going to try and get into as many of them as possible. The first one I'm going to put first of all to Lara and then Manuel. It comes from your colleague Patrick Smith, Foreign Policy Editor at the Irish Times. Patrick asks, are voters concerned by Le Pen dissembling over support for Putin? Lara then Manuel. They should be, but they don't seem to be. She, as you know, she got a loan from Putin, well from a Russian bank close to the Kremlin. In the last election she owes them, I think 9.4 million euro. She went and made a speech in the Duma. She's very chummy with the speaker of the Russian, you know, Duma. No, I haven't heard anybody question this and I think it goes back to the old goalist thing of French independence and, you know, the goal used to talk about super power condominium and they saw the Soviet Union and the US as almost equal in a way and that mentality is sort of rooted in France and I think especially the far right would be very distrustful of the US and of NATO and less suspicious of Russia astonishingly even after the invasion of Ukraine and Le Pen has quite successfully played down her past support for Russia and Putin. She did create a little bit of a scandal by saying that she could envisage being allies with Putin again after the war. And this was brought up on on France on tear radio this morning and she said, Oh, what I meant was we could be in the future allies with Russia again. But she is which I haven't heard her say a word against Putin, but it doesn't seem to be denting her support. You see, what the difference was the more was he really he really came out strongly in support of Putin and the war and against the refugees and Le Pen has just been very tiptoed around the whole issue. Manuel, I invite everyone to both you to answer each question if you have something to say on this one. I mean, really, Lara has covered all the bases there. Indeed, Zemur suffered and took the hit for all the pro-Putin anti-NATO candidates. You know, it didn't dent anything from Melanchon. He's like he's got huge momentum at the moment, like plus 4.5 points, I think in the last month. And same, same with Le Pen. Le Pen has been very cagey, careful, as Lara said, tiptoeing and being being, yeah, a little bit shifty, but it worked for her. So, so yeah, it's her electorate will keep support and ultimately her electorate, you know, is, and that is the difference with Zemur as well. Her electorate is very working class as well. All they want is cost of living purchasing power, etc. Whether she supports Putin, how is she funded, they don't really care. I'll move on to to a question that looking across Europe, we can see the kind of the recovery of the of the center left and a lot of places, obviously in Iberia, Germany and the Nordics. And we've a question in, I'll put it to Emmanuel first. In fact, I'll group two questions together. The first of which is from Dr. Clare Lodee at Trinity College. The question is, how do you explain the collapse of the traditional left and right wing parties since 2017? Is there anything new since five years ago that either of you can shed light on regarding the, not just the collapse, but for me what's curious is the failure, failure of the recovery on the center left especially. And then a second question I'll group together. The recovery of Brahanek former Labour TD and former Education Minister. Good to have you with us, Neil. Neil asks to both speakers. Any comment on the socialist failure to impact on this election related but separate. I'll give you the chance to answer first Emmanuel. What I can think of certainly this collapse on the left started in 2017 they haven't recovered one bit. We might actually one of the other big surprises that might happen this Sunday is the communists potentially scoring slightly more than the socialists, which would be unheard of in the Fifth Republic. So lack of unity on the left, it's so splintered. I mean the number of different parties on the left is just astounding and they cannot agree. And they have been attempts but they cannot agree on, you know, a common manifesto etc. Which ultimately, if we go back that's what Mitterrand did right with the program command that they don't have that and which leads to a battle of egos, which is quite astounding. At the same time, just specifically on Anne Hidalgo, she was poorly selected in the process. I mean, you know she seemed to have been selected by the party and then they went all will do a primary to endorse it which which was really like putting things back to front and obviously not being very democratic. But ultimately I mean it comes back to the lack of ideas. What have they brought to the debate that is really novel. How have they regenerated or modernized their ideas, how the party is working as well is particularly questioning and that I think on the left is one of the, or a few of the biggest issues. On the right. Yes, I'm more surprised, nearly on the right to see the public are struggling so much. And you had sorry I never mentioned I never answered your past question about Sarkozy. Sarkozy didn't endorse the press, and this has been a slow poison for her campaign, I think. You know, she was hoping to get the endorsement, and it didn't come and I think his advisors or his friends kept putting out all the nasty things he was saying in private about her, and kind of highlighting how he thought Sarkozy was absolutely amazing, even better than he was, you know. So, Sarkozy built the Republican to his image, and managed to hold it together. This party doesn't, doesn't work anymore because ultimately the press was chosen, but we know now that there were probably irregularities in the way she was chosen. So T that Lara mentioned is at the extreme right of this party and she had to hold the two sides together without with very technical measures, she had no vision for, you know, for France from from her conservative viewpoint. And you mentioned in my question, or in one of the questions you asked me, you mentioned that because accused, you know, Macron of stealing her ideas, but that is a huge endorsement for her orders to go and vote for Macron. So I think that was a huge mistake. There's again, a lack of vision on the right. And that has been problematic, I think. Lara anything left on said there. No, that's, that's pretty good summary I'd say yes the fragmentation of the left is is a huge problem we saw almost a replay of what happened in 2002. Joseph, who should have been in the runoff and could quite possibly have been a good socialist president for France, lost just because I think there were five socialist candidates or shoot offs of social and when she eventually pulled out of the race, but when she decided to be a candidate everyone said you're you're you're destroying this just like you did in 2002. I think that on both sides that the real problem is a dearth of charismatic politicians. The socialist who had no one who's who's just who you'd want to vote for no one convincing at all and 2017 Benoit Amon, who was the candidate then I think he got 6% of a vote, and it looks like any delgo will get to 2 and a half percent, which I mean, an absolute catastrophe for a once proud party and they had to sell their headquarters and so far you know headquarters big historic building that was bought by me to have Francois Hollande's presidency was pretty disastrous. And I think they've had a hard time living living that down. I mean, a couple of examples to show the importance of having charismatic leaders, Emmanuel mentioned that the Communist Party may surpass the socialist on Sunday. And that is because the Communist have a guy called Fabien Oussell, who's, who's likeable. And he's been one of the surprises of this campaign, and he will perform. Yeah, he's not going to make it to the run out but he will almost certainly perform better than and he's out to go. And regarding the Republican, Edward Philippe, who originally was a jupe East from the Republican was incredibly popular as Prime Minister and that's why my con got rid of him. He very loyally said I will not stand against Emmanuel Macron, but he's sort of waiting in the wings. And I could see a I could imagine a rejuvenation of the Republican around the character of Edward Philippe that that is not at all impossible. I think that that Macron handled Nicolas Sarkozy very well because he knew there's this lovely expression French carcé dans le sens du poil, you know, like the way if you're patting a cat or dog or whatever and Macron flattered Sarkozy invited him and Carla Bruni to the 80s a for meals he sought advice from him. And who knows maybe maybe there's some secret deal between them and Macron will appoint Sarkozy to some wonderful position I don't know. But I think I I sensed a certain misogyny also in Sarkozy vis-à-vis Valerie Pecress I could be wrong about that but you know he feels that the Republican is his it's his party. I think he was very annoyed that he wasn't their candidate five years ago. And, and he just thinks Pecress isn't good enough to lead his party. So that's pretty much all I would have to say about. A quick query just on an algo, especially if we look at the past kind of five, six years of French politics, the rise of the gilet jaune for example there's this great sense of you know the Perry urban versus the urban. So what extent was is a daggers problem that she's from Paris, if she was the mayor of Lille would that make a big difference do you think, or the socialist just not at the races anyway. One here's that said, I don't know Jack Shirak was mayor of Paris and he became president. I'm not sure that's a reason I mean, I live in Paris and frankly I don't think she runs the city very well.  You know, and she the only thing she's good for is cyclist and as a cyclist I appreciate that there are a lot of new bicycle lanes which is great and bicycle parking lots, you know with those those bars where you where you attach your bicycle. But aside from that I can't, I really wouldn't have anything good to say about the way she's around the city. And I think there's a strong feeling that if, if she can't run the city properly, how is she going to run the country. I did actually notice that on a recent trip to Paris what you say about cyclists manual before moving on to the question from from Alan Dukes I want to get to but do you want to do want to comment. And I do think it matters though. I think it matters that she's from Paris. I think it matters linked to what Larry just mentioned that she's not very charismatic because yes, Jack Jack was from Paris, but he was from Coors. You know, he was like that was where he was from. He was well known for being this charismatic guy who was really warm and who would shake your hands and who'd share beer with you and, you know, he was well known for his appearances and I don't like it to the farming kind of big show that we have every year. And, and I need to go doesn't have this Christmas. And on top of that, yes, she's lent to Paris she's seen as a Parisian, and that doesn't work in. So I would say no if it had, it would have been the same with like the mayor of Lille or etc, like a big city, or similar. But certainly, having no kind of regional routing, like corres or, you know, limousine or whatever that that matters, I think. Yeah. And it's, it's an accusation. A portrait against Macron as well, that you know he's, he's an elite candidate. I'm wondering the, the kind of crowded field already had one of those kind of a prison elite. So I wondered if that's okay. Okay, in the interest of time because this is a tremendous conversation where there's loads of questions so I'm going to start putting them just to you individually if that's okay and I'll stick with you. Manuel and there's a question from Alan Dukes who's former finance minister and many other things and also a DRII member, and Alan asks, how likely is it that left wing voters will vote Macron in the second round. Of course, that some of them say that Le Pen cannot be worse than Macron. Yes, indeed. And this is why the gap is, is tightening. I think that's, that's the problem that Macron is facing and this is why in his big rally there. He went on about the social side of his manifesto, because so far he'd been kind of to take Lara's expression can I see the right wing voters. He really tried to focus on the left wing voters. He needs the two legs to walk to the second round and to win eventually. So he needs those left wing voters. I personally still think that there is a glass ceiling for my Le Pen. I think I believe at the last, I believe for several reasons as well we have two weeks between the two rounds. Last year, not that I'm saying it's going to be a repeat, but obviously the debate, the televised debate really killed my Le Pen. And he's not going to do hopefully, or nearly hopefully for her. It was cringing, but she, she, she is much better prepared, but even economically there there's, there's, there are huge questions about how costed her program is. So the two weeks there, Macron is going to each have a huge impact I think he's kind of had a slow campaign so far. I think the left wing voters will come to him a little bit more as we get to the second round, but it won't be a gap like Laha mentioned between 66 and 33. It won't be that gap this time between Macron. That's my prediction but don't hold me to it. A quick change of gear and to you Lara we have a question from Jerry Fitzgerald's Brigadier General retired the Irish Defense Forces. How are you doing, Jerry? Question for Lara. Has US politics and European security impacted the debates to any extent. A Republican president and a return of US first policy could push for a reduction of US NATO involvement in Europe. Sorry, I'll just say that again. And has US politics and European security impacted the debates. Let's leave it at that. Not really. I mean, five years ago Marine Le Pen was pro Trump, and she and actually this time some more like to portray himself as as the, the French Trump. I haven't really heard any mention of US policy and European security. I don't think it's a big issue here. I mean, the Macron going and making speeches and saying, we must have European defense that would that would please people, but no more than that. I mean, it's not. I mean, maybe Sean possibly would have would have talked would have. He would be the most likely to say anti American things and to criticize I mean, it's not like let me put it this way back in 2003 when you have the US laying waste to Iraq. I think there would have been a much stronger anti American feeling. There would have been fairly strong anti Trump or pro Trump feeling Joe Biden does not inspire passions. And the US is just kind of not not a big deal in France at the moment. We're related to this although a separate subject obviously we've already spoken about about Putin but the conflict in Ukraine. Is there anything further you can sail our about how is included on the campaign on thinking specifically about the president's involvement before the conflict official has that included much on the on the discourse and public attitudes towards the president. I think it's helped my call a lot, because he's seen as capable of managing a crisis he's seen as the chief of the armed forces he's seen a lot of people here like everywhere else in Europe people are a bit worried what if the war spreads what if we get into World War three. And I think that they would have confidence in my home to lead them through that and I'm not so sure they'd have confidence in anyone else to do so. So, the war is definitely helped my call in a way, the fact that the campaign has been so subdued and low key and almost inaudible invisible has also helped my call, because he's the incumbent, and people know him and he has that familiarity with which the others have to fight to win and so on so it that is how it has impacted the campaign. It's always like a bit of an auction here moving between different topics I'm going to shift gear again and put a question to you, Emmanuel if I may. I have a question here from Donald Rulicon and I, an IEA member question goes, given that many countries in Europe already have coalition governments in fact I think all bar maybe to Portugal and multi think. Why do you, why do you say it is problematic. So it's a challenging question but a fair one because surely problematic is the antithesis of a strong man autocratic government, which lack checks and balances to limit the scope for public and private excesses I think it's problematic manual. It's problematic in France, in the French system, you know, as Lara pointed out, the present is a monarch, the president wants a, an overall majority, as homogeneous majority as possible. So what what the president doesn't want is certainly a mix and match of, we've had coalition governments in the past between the green the socialist the communists coming together and etc. And we've survived so it was okay.  She will just have to water down what she wants to do on the domestic scene. And at the same time, several kind of issues are dealt with at European level in different councils and, and that comes from the national government as well you know it's the, the minister for agriculture that goes in the, the council for agriculture so. So Marine Le Pen would have to compose basically and it would be the same for for Macron. Lara mentioned that France, the French president is a monarch, it's exactly that and Macron has behaved like a monarch, despite what he argued he would do the right thing in 2017 he already promised he would have a constitutional reform which we haven't seen. So, so that's what every monarch wants a very homogeneous. So problematic, I meant through the eyes of the present. I don't find it problematic. But the president will find it more difficult to maneuver than a government and a national assembly that just robust a national assembly that just robustance what the government puts before it. Very, very clear analysis, I think we just have time I'm going to put one question to Lara and then a short one to both of you. And again thanks very much for taking the time to be with us you know you're very busy there's a question from Anthony Brogan, I'm a freelance journalist and I have to read it because you'll understand why the question goes what are the speakers use and I'll put this to you Lara on President Macron's foreign policy and climate diplomacy. And how would it change in the Palace of Versailles effect these matters going forward we probably mean the Elisa Palace but it's a nice slip of the tongue. We're talking about Macron being virtually a monarch so foreign policy and climate diplomacy do you have a view Lara. Yeah, my personal view is that I think his foreign policy overall is is quite well no actually I take that back. I was going to say I approve. He loves foreign policy. He's he he's like the super diplomat and poor Jean-Yves Le Drian is foreign minister barely gets a good look in Jean-Yves Le Drian gets to do all the sort of leftovers and he loves the big summit and, you know, being on the world stage and so on. He's quite good at it in as much as he he's engaged and he's got everyone on the telephone all the time and he's constantly fielding ideas and so on. I found it very hard to take when in the first year of his presidency he was a very very chummy, you know, hugging kissing kind of with people like Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, a Putin at some stages as well. I wouldn't like. I think he overdoes it sometimes. On the other hand, I think I would approve very much of his fervor for the European Union. He isn't a very convinced European. I think that to a certain extent Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel are certainly his allies. I don't I think he was quite instrumental in getting them chosen. And I would I would approve. I think he's done a lot for Europe. He really has climate policy. I have sort of mixed feelings. I think it's actual record on climate. He's talked a lot, but I think he hasn't really done that much. I'm, I'm kind of really he's, he's placing all of the investment now in nuclear power, and Le Pen also says is very gung-ho on nuclear power. And again, just personally, I have serious reservations about nuclear power. I think that, you know, we have Fukushima and Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. We've had all these past examples and I'd rather turn down the thermostat. Then take the risk personally and I don't and he's kind of using France's nuclear power program, which is more than 70% of their energy and they're very fortunate because they're not reliant on on Russian gas the way Germany is. But he's using that as a sort of alibi. It's like, look, we're fighting climate change because we have nuclear power. It's not quite good enough for me. In the interest of time, I'm actually going to leave that as the last question, but I'm going to ask you Manuel, because I saw you actively listening as you were throughout, but specifically there when Lara was talking about climate and nuclear. Do you want to make a comment, Manuel? No, I just wanted to say that I forgot to mention something in my remarks, but what Lara just said, in a post-fercal era Macron is really setting himself up to be the new leader of the European Union. That's his legacy. That's what he wants it to be. And when you look at his program, I did say in his manifesto, he doesn't mention Europe, March and etc. But actually, if you go back to the last one speech he delivered in September 2017, you have all of what he wants to do for, you know, for the next five years there. And it's all there. And yes, he wants to be the new leader of the European Union. And that's where, as Lara mentioned, yeah, it's his legacy. That's how he wants to be remembered. A really true dedicated European. And can I just say, I will be looking at if he wins, whether he comes out, wherever he'll locate his victory stage on the European anthem. Because that really boosted me in 2017. I don't know whether he'll do the same this year. A tiny follow-up question, right? Just to clarify what you're saying Manuel, in terms of, you know, his European ambitions, is that leading from the European Council as the president? Or do you actually envisage him stepping away into Brussels to try to obtain one of the top jobs that some people have discussed, as difficult as it would be for a character like Macron. But what are his ambitions in that respect? No, no, for now, I think it's leading from the European Council. I think he's preparing the 2024 elections. He's thinking transnational lists. He's thinking all of this. He's got his troops in Renew now, and he's going to push that as much as possible. And he wants the next generation, next generation EU package of collectivisation of debt and etc. It should be a model for the Economic Monetary Union and other programmes that the EU would develop. That's my idea. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for taking the time and for the clear and thoughtful analysis. It's always a real pleasure. I'd like to thank on our side as well. Alex Conway for pulling the event together from the research room, which can you all the best. Thank you very much for your time. And I guess we may regroup in future to discuss the outcome of the French presidential elections if we have the time. So thank you everybody and have a good afternoon.


Right, you know on the increasing complexity and also increasing opportunities for leaders to make an impact to human to mankind, right? Two sides of the same coin, right? What is something that we we might be fearful of a path? Oh, and on the opposite end, what are the some people hopeful about? The other problem to do you you've you've you've taken into some very grand themes But let's come more basic very often leadership is about making a decision, right? And it's making a decision in in it's making a decision with limited knowledge in difficult circumstances when time is against you That is the starting point for a leadership We can all have grand decisions grand issues about leadership on same-sex issues or gender equality or human rights or slave labor or human trafficking That's one bit, but it's also about corruption. It's about transparency. It's about instilling moral values in people It's about Motivating people to do the right thing all these are so whenever you talk about leadership as I know Icliffe does with such magnificent work There are those differences between the motivational side versus the ethical side versus the commercial side And at any given time you as a CEO are going backwards and forwards between all three What are you hopeful for for when you see leadership in the 21st century?    Yeah, please you're falling into the trap That says if I'm not saying everything's rosy Then it must be bad. Okay You want motivational Okay, and I'm saying motivational is fine, but motivational falls at the first whiff of grape shot All right Because you have to you can do the motivational stuff with as a leader, but you've got to have something there you've got to have Blackbone and stomach and courage and things that are going to stand you in good stead against difficult times and decisions Telling everybody you're really good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we can do it. Yeah. Yeah, let's go Go go now. We're gonna get you so far Telling everybody this is gonna be really difficult. This is gonna be really half tough, but I believe that We know where we're going and this is what we need to do. So it's something worth fighting for. Oh, of course it is You have to you have you have to instill this in people Well, that's motivational enough for me. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thanks very much


Look at this. No, it's over here. Look at this. PlayStation have officially not fully revealed the PSVR2 headset, but they've officially named us. It is officially the PlayStation Virtual Reality 2 or PSVR2 headset and the controller is called the Sense or the PlayStation VR2 Sense controller. Makes sense? Upon not intended there because the dual sense and this is without the dual, it's just the sense. Not only that, we got a look at the first official first party Sony title, which is called Horizon Call of the Mountain. It's been developed by Firesprice, which is something that we've been following on this channel for a while. The development of a Horizon Virtual Reality project, I feel like we've been talking about it for like two years now or something. So it is really cool to see that officially confirmed and that Firesprice are the ones actually working on it too. Alongside Gorilla, maybe. I'm not sure if it's a collaboration effort going on there. But given Firesprice's history with Virtual Reality, I wouldn't be surprised if they're doing the, you know, the brunt of the work while Gorilla are working on Forbidden West, which is out in like a month. So let's go into this article from Hideaki Nishino. It is my great pleasure to start off 2022 with news that our next generation Virtual Reality system for PS5 console, starting with the official name PlayStation VR2 and our new Virtual Reality controller PlayStation VR2 Sense controller. PlayStation VR2 takes VR gaming to a whole new level, enabling a gracer sense of presence and allowing players to escape into game worlds like never before. With the headset on and controllers in hand, players will feel a heightened range of sensations, unlike any other. Thanks to the creativity of the game worlds being built by our world-class developers and the latest technology incorporated into the hardware. So all that so far is kind of just your standard. I don't want to say waffle, but you know, it's nothing too interesting yet, kind of everything you would expect. So building upon our innovations from PS5, PlayStation VR2 has a true next-gen experience with high-fidelity visuals, new sensory features and enhanced tracking, along with a simplified single-chord setup. So they have some bullet points here. Top one is visual fidelity. So for a high-fidelity visual experience, PSVR2 offers 4K HDR, kind of knew that already, 110 degree FOV, which that was leaked and the FOV is at render and it's nice to see all these things confirmed. With an OLED display, players can expect a display resolution of 2000x240 per eye and smooth frame rates of 90 to 120 Hertz. All good stuff. Headset-based controller tracking is next, so talking about the tracking. With inside out tracking, PSVR2 tracks you and your controller through integrated cameras embedded in the headset. Your movements and the direction you look at are reflected in-game without the need for an external camera. Thank God.  New sensory features, so PSVR2 Sense technology combines eye tracking, headset feedback, 3D audio and the innovative PSVR2 Sense controller to create an incredibly deep feeling of immersion. Headset feedback is a new sensory feature that amplifies the sensations of in-game actions from the player. It's created by a single built-in motor with vibrations that add an intelligent tactile element. Bringing players closer to the gameplay experience, for example, gamers can feel a character's elevated pulse during tense moments, the rush of objects passing close to those characters' heads, or the thrust of a vehicle as the character speeds forward. Additionally, the PS5's 10-pest 3D audio tech makes sounds and the players' surroundings come alive, adding to this new level of immersion. Then eye tracking. With eye tracking, PSVR2 detects the motions of your eyes, so a simple look in a specific direction can create an additional impulse for the game character. This allows players to interact more intuitively in new and lifelike ways, allowing for a heightened emotional response and enhanced expression that provide a new level of realism in gaming. So all of these advancements in PSVR2 combined with the haptic feedback from PSVR2 Sense controllers and triggers and stuff. Enable players to feel and interact with games in a much more visceral way. PSVR2 will also have a simple setup process with a single cable connected directly to your PS5. You can immediately jump into the PSVR experience. So for those of you who are holding out hope that it was going to be a virus, I think you can give up those dreams that will be a single cord. Which I'm happy with. I prefer the power over the convenience, but I know some people will be disappointed with that, but you know it is what it is, and it's still certainly a big improvement over that dirty breakout box. Today we are also pleased to reveal that one of the biggest exclusive franchises on PlayStation will be coming to PSVR2. Horizon Call of the Mountain from Gorilla and Firesprice. I'll have the trailer playing beside this in the video. So you can see what it is. This original game is being built specifically for PSVR2 and will open the doors for players to go deeper into the world of Horizon. So it's an original game built from the ground up for PSVR2. All good stuff. I hope you've enjoyed today's exciting updates. Just remember this is only a taste for things to come, and I can't wait to share more details with you about PSVR2. In the meantime, blows the list of official specs. So I mean you can go through the, and then the other jumps out as interesting, then separation is adjustable cameras, there's four cameras for the headsets. And controller tracking, infrared camera for eye tracking, per eye. So I guess that means there's another camera inside looking at your eyes, has the vibration on the headsets, USB type C confirmed, and then for audio it will have a built-in microphone just like PSVR1 does, and it will have a headphone jack. So the audio situation is the same as PSVR1. And then we talk about the controllers, which is kind of all the buttons, nothing too exciting here I don't think, although it does confirm the capacitive sensor for the finger touch detection. Infrared LED, so confirmed to be infrared LEDs, which means I guess we won't see them. We won't see all these LEDs lighting up on the controllers. I think this was all revealed at a CES 2022, I didn't know that was even happening. This was like a real surprise. I didn't expect to see it so early, but at the same time, if they're going talking about it like this, I'm kind of wondering why aren't we seeing the actual headset itself? Why aren't they outlining maybe a release window? You know, they're not talking about pricing yet, they're not talking about pre-orders or anything like that. So we should take into account it is possible it's not even going to come out this year. Might not be 2022, it could be like early 2023. I think they're planning for 2022, I think that's why we're not hearing about a release window yet, is because maybe they themselves don't know and they're hoping they can get a lock in for 2022, but they don't want to confirm us until they know of themselves for sure, which is just a quick news update video for PSVR2. Just to get this out there, there's probably a bit more to unpack here, maybe there'll be more information coming in the next day or two as well, we'll have to wait and see. But until then, I think I'll leave the video there, let me know in the comments what you think about this and what you think about Horizon. We'll have to go over that trailer again and like listen to the characters talk and see if we recognize if it's Aloy as the playable character or not so I'm not sure. So that's all kind of fun stuff we can look ahead to in the coming days. So until then, thank you very much for watching and let me thank Decepticon for letting me use his music in all of my videos, you can check him out Decepticon.com, link in the description below and with that I'll end this video. I don't need to say it this time because I know you're moist, I know us. Goodbye.


Okay, hello everyone. Alright, so I think we can start. Yes, so okay, so good morning to all in Europe and good afternoon and evening to all in Asia Pacific and very early morning to some in the US. I am delighted to be part of this hyperledger special panel. As speaker today, let me introduce you. Firstly, side chain who leads the hyperledger climate accounting and certification walking group as president of open source strategy. He has created the open tabs open source ERP for CRM and start energy application suits for managing green energy projects. He is also a former found manager and the co-founder of the e-commerce site, Russia style.com. Then we also have up with us Robin, who is currently the co-chair of the hyperledger climate action and accounting team, which supports the development of an open global climate accounting system. Currently, he is earning his PhD at the Institute of Internet Security of the Westphalian University of Applied Science and actively contributing to various open source projects such as hyperledger India and hyperledger lab blockchain carbon accounting. We are also with Kamlesh, who is one of the top 30 blockchain influencer of India, according to the Singapore Panthek news. He has 11 years of experience in software development and IT consulting and supply chain management, trade finance and travel and transportation solution and more than five years experience in blockchain and hyperledger technologies. Also, he is the co-lead of the hyperledger India chapter and an active contributor in hyperledger health care, telecomsig, identity walking group, education and climate action group in the hyperledger community. Then my name is Carolina Gorna, and I am the president of crypto sphere, the first French student association specialized in blockchain and new technology. I am currently enrolled in a master program at telecom Sud Paris Institute for a technique, the Paris. I am also the local lead of the NASA space app challenge in Paris and I'm taking part in the open climate collaboration initialized by hyperledger since November 2019. And I am currently contributing to several hyperledger areas and India projects. Next slide. So the flow for today is that we will do an overview of the India US and European ecosystem to see how the blockchain is helping to achieve the sustainable goal. The overarching goal for all of us is to manage the word single planetary carbon budget and realize the Paris agreement. For the next slides, Kamlesh, the floor is yours. Kamlesh, you're muted. Okay, yeah. Thank you, and good morning, good evening, good afternoon, everyone. So sustainable development goals we everyone know and we even know the importance of the climate change and climate involvement into things. So in this talk, we're going to present India, Europe and US specific initiatives in the climate actions and SDGs. So here I'm talking about the India perspective. So India is committed to achieve the 17 SDG goals and Nithya, which is the government arm of the think tank of the Indian government who monitor and overseeing the implementation of SDGs across the country. And in the current trends like recently the overall SDG ranking in India, which is really improved 66 to 20, 66 to 66 in just two years. And not just the government and regulatory environments, even the private corporate and companies also becoming net zero. So recently the Infosys, which is an IT company in India, recently become the net zero in 2020, which is well before the global 2020 timeline. Next slides. Okay, so now how blockchain is helping to achieve the SDG goals. So SDGs, there are 17 SDG goals and no poverty, hunger, supply chain, kind of climate change, environmental changes. So all this. So blockchain could help to achieve different sectors, initiatives. So for example, this Tata Steel, which is a biggest steel manufacturer in India. And they partnered with, kind of joined the consortium of World Economic Forum with the, along with six different steel manufacturer and kind of helping to track the carbon emission of the manufacturing process. Also the strategic which is tracking the vaccine distribution across the India, even before the COVID-19 vaccines, and which is part of the UNICEF Innovation Fund to track the COVID vaccines. Next slides. So other than this supply chain, and there are other sector like renewable energy, solar power distribution, and even the kind of skill certificate to the, who are people in the, in the people who are working in the real estate sector, there is no education and kind of things. And the P2P energy trading projects, which is where the national blockchain strategy which recently come out from the Indian government. They're also focusing on the peer to peer energy trading based on the blockchain based systems. And we are also working with the few customers to in the, in the renewable sector to kind of create the, their energy with distribution system all by blockchain and even calculating the carbon emission and carbon offset and then, end up tokenizing those carbon offset. And also in India, a couple of startups are kind of providing opportunity to invest in the clean and clean asset, like for example, there is a one PICE startup with the Hyperlegia Fabric powered blockchain platform. It's providing platform to invest in the solar energy, wind energy platforms, and give you some kind of tokenize your investment. Next slides. And circular economy is very important and plays a very vital role in the, any kind of SDG goals, achievement. And there are, there are various initiative when the companies are working in the West management, end-to-end food traceability or improving the sustainable supply chain, low carbon supply chain. And the EPR, which is a very broad term nowadays in the West management companies like extended producer responsibility. So where the companies are responsible to recycle the plastic or recycle the West, which they are producing during their product cycle and try to reuse this recycle products, recycle material in their new supply chain. And, and now this is mended by the regulator and the government to fulfill their EPR goals. And blockchain plays very important role to track and trace this EPR in the West management cycles. And in the Indian, Indian companies, many West management companies are adopting blockchain and working. We are currently working with a couple of few customers to implement their West management and EPR goals, which is blockchain powered. And there are a couple of investment fund focusing on the West management and recycling industry. Next slide. So other than circular economy and the renewable energy sector, there are, there are various sectors where we, where blockchain could apply to combat the climate change and climate actions, like applying blockchain to climate action in agriculture, like where you can apply the blockchain to kind of track the agri-vection and like what kind of pesticide being used, whether you are using the organic farming or non-organ farming, carbon accounting and carbon credit tokenization in the West management, even renewable energy sectors, low carbon supply chain, plastic recycle, EPR implementation and kind of issuing the renewable energy certificate, because this is mended by the government and regulator to, to offset anyhow your carbon emission and kind of reduce your carbon footprint to your products and peer to peer trading of the solar energies. So next slide. So, so I will just say two different stories in the different segment. One is from the government sector where, where the one of the state governments are working with the India Smart Grid Forum and the power ministry of India to use the renewable energy platform for solar power distribution in the one of the state government. And which is, which is, which is very interesting, I think, because in the, still in India, like I'm trading the electricity, is it not the kind of easily like we do in the US and Europe sector, but the, with the ministry of power and the India's medical former, these are being implemented on the blockchain based system. So this is one government one. Next slide. So, yeah, so not just government, even the corporate corporate sector, private sector taking their responsibility and kind of trying to implement the blockchain based system or kind of anyhow want to implement their sustainable development goal. Like, for example, the Aditya Vedila group, which is a very large compliment in India, which work in different sectors. So one of the sector, there is a, they are fashion and retail and they have their Birla cellulose, which is a kind of organic kind of forest to forest kind of fibers. And they are taking their end to end supply chain from forest to till fashion industry kind of circular supply chain and kind of using these two different approaches. So one is kind of integrating the supply chain from Forex to fashion supply chain. Another is kind of calculating the carbon footprint of their products, which are available in their retail stores. So this is kind of shows the importance of the Indian government and Indian corporate sector to achieve the sustainable development and how blockchain is helping to achieve it. So now I will hand over to Robin, who will talk about the Europe SDG goals. Before we talk about Europe, we'll talk about USA perspective. Sai Chen made a recording for us. He's not able to attend the meeting because it's run about 2 a.m. at Pacific time. So we're going to play the recording to you and you're able to post your sessions to the Q&A and Sai Chen will answer them. After the presentation to the mailing list of the Hyperlediatric Climate Action Accounting Group. Sai Chen, and I'm going to talk a little bit about what's happening in climate in the United States and the opportunities for blockchain. So what you've probably read is that we have a new president who's introduced a lot of climate initiatives in Congress and there's been some spirited, let's say, political debate about those. And what you may not have read is about all the state and local government initiatives that are actually already taking place as well as initiatives from major corporations and investors and even the oil and gas industry here. So I like to tell you about those. So the state and local government in the United States have in fact been doing a lot on climate even during the last decade. For example, eight states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico now have 100% clean energy goals. The majority of the states have some renewable energy standards already. The state of California, which is the fifth largest economy in the world, has mandated electric vehicles by 2035 in the whole state and heavy duty transport vehicles must all be electric by 2045. It's also requiring that all new residential buildings be net zero energy. In other words, using onsite solar or renewables to offset all the buildings internal energy in 2020. So that's already started and our commercial buildings and all major upgrades of buildings reached that goal in 2030. So just by its size, California is basically pushing the United States of not the whole world towards electric vehicles. And also New York City, which is the 10th largest economy in the world, surprisingly, has enacted a lot of climate legislation, specifically local law 97, which is really important because it covers 60% of the buildings in New York City. And it's requiring that they all reduce emissions by 40% versus 2005 levels within the next decade. So that's creating, along with California's laws, a lot more focus on making our building sector our largest source of emissions in the United States more energy efficient. The opportunities for the blockchain is to make data collection more efficient so that these kinds of mandates are easier to implement. And we could engage the private sector to do something positive without burdening them with undue regulation and red tape and also help scale these up across more municipalities in the country. Meanwhile, some of the largest companies and investors in the United States have also committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Blackrock, one of the largest fund managers in the world, it has been calling on all the companies that invest to do something about climate. Microsoft has committed to be carbon negative, not just carbon neutral, but actually removing all this historical carbon by 2030 through both internal measures and purchases of carbon offsets. And these are just some of the examples of what's been happening in this area. For these companies, what we could help with is measuring greenhouse gas emissions, especially scope three or supply chain emissions, all the products that they purchase and transport, improving the transparency quality of carbon offsets, which right now has a lot of issues with transparency of pricing and also actual quality of whether the offsets are reducing emissions as they're claiming to. And finally, improving consumer engagement so that companies who take these initiatives feel like they are getting a return that their customers are buying in. And finally, there's been a lot of change in the oil and gas industry, one of the big parts of our economy here. With the carbon capture and sequestration technology, we're now able to capture carbon emissions at the point of use, for example, major power plants and then store them back into oil fields and geologic formations for very long time. There's now bipartisan support for that major piece of legislation called the Scale Act in the federal government and federal tax support for carbon capture and sequestration. And you may have read also Exxon through its institutional investors vote is now going to have on its board several people who are going to be focused on the climate issue. So this industry is changing and what they could use help with through the blockchain is one proving that the emissions reductions emissions captured is real. And second of the track the emissions reductions and the local carbon fuels through their supply chains. So those are some of the interesting things that you may not have heard about that's happening in the United States. And if you have questions, please put them on the chat and then come back to our climate sick mailing list and I'll answer them for you there. Thank you. Next we're going to talk about the European perspective. I present the European Green Deal and the circular economy action plan of European Commission in December 2019 the European Commission presented the European Green Deal, which is basically roadmap for the EU to become sustainable and climate neutral by 2025. On this slide, you can see four different fields of this Green Deal. The first one is the energy system. The goal is to decarbonize the current energy system that accounts for more than 75% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions. 40% of the energy is consumed by buildings. To lower this rate, the Green Deal proposes also to renovate buildings and thereby cut people's energy bills and usage. Further, the Green Deal aims to support the industry. It wants European companies to become leaders in green technology. And if you take a look at the percentage of recycled materials that are currently used, you see that there's plenty room for innovation. Also, the European Green Deal focuses on the transport sector. It wants to roll out cleaner, healthier and cheaper forms of private and public transport. In general, you can say in Europe that half of the total greenhouse gas emissions come from either resource extraction or resource processing. So it is not possible to achieve the climate neutrality target by 2050 without transitioning to a fully circular economy, which I'm going to talk about on the next slide. The Circle Economy Action Plan announces initiatives for the entire lifecycle of products. That means from design and manufacturing to the consumption, like the actual use of the products, to repair use and recycling, and finally bringing back resources into the economy. The aim of the Action Plan is to reduce the consumption footprint and to double the EU's circular material use rate in the actual decade where we're living in from 2020 to 2030. To do so, the European Commission wants to make sustainable products that last and wants to enable all citizens to take full part in the Circle Economy. When I was reading this for the first time, I asked myself, how can I take full part in the economy without any reliable data about sustainability and circularity of products? It also kind of remembered me on a crowd by Peter Trager that says, you can manage what you can measure. So imagine the foreign scenario.   So now you want to take your role in the Circle Economy and make an informed decision that's in line with the Circle Economy Action Plan of the European Union. Do you feel comfortable to make an informed decision? I mean, I had this experience last week and actually I wasn't informed at all. I think that there's a huge lack in the current system of data. It's very intransparent and I think there is a credit opportunity for blockchain technology to solve these issues. A distributed ledger could provide and maintain the data we need to close the loop. In terms of the Circle Economy or in terms of the sneakers, I can think of maybe the carbon footprint of the pair of sneakers or a resource footprint, maybe also the amount of water used in production or the percentage of recycled materials. Those are all opportunities and blockchain can help to provide and gather this information. And in general, the Circle Economy Action Plan focuses on sectors that use the most resources and also have a high potential for circularity. Batteries are actually one of those areas and resources. These sustainable batteries for a circular economy, a circular economy proposal of the European Union says that batteries placed in the European Union should become sustainable, high performing and save all along their life cycle. According to the proposal, the content of recycled materials and collection treatment and recycling of batteries at the end of light will get new requirements. So an example is the current collection rate of batteries is around about 45%. That wasn't 20, 20. And the goal is to increase this collection rate to 65% in 2025 and 70% in 2030. This law will come in force on January 1st in 2022. Two and a half years later, it's July 2024. From there on, only rechargeable industrial and electric vehicle batteries for which a carbon footprint declaration has been established can be placed on the market. So we have to measure the collection recycling rate of batteries and also we have to provide a carbon footprint declaration for each battery. I think this will only be possible if batteries will be identified, if batteries get an identity. A blockchain based battery password can be the solution. Just think of a digital identity that connects the battery and its critical parts with the end of things. Stored on the blockchain. This will increase the transparency of the overall battery market and enable traceability of it will start with large batteries throughout their entire life cycle. Thereby, as for example, as a car manufacturer, you're now able to track and report the lifetime journey of each vehicle and battery and thereby demonstrate its sustainability. With this battery password, you will be able to say at the end of life or battery whether batteries have been responsibly managed or not. Karina will now continue on the next slide and discuss the sustainability now. Thank you, Robin. So we have covered India, the US and the European ecosystem. But it's also important to say that there are projects that have been developed, which are multi-continental and which include a different working group. And the sustainability is an example of a project that has been developed and that is currently being implemented thanks to the Hyperledger Working Group C. And the idea of the sustainability now is to enable the consumer to give its opinion on the product and then to create a score with variables that have been established in the formula. And the idea is to share this sustainability score with the industry and to make the market change and the product evolve thanks to this vision of the consumer and to enable them to have a bigger impact on what they are buying and to make the whole ecosystem change. So these kind of projects are really inspiring and you can also get involved by joining the Hyperledger C session that Robin will describe quickly for the end of this panel. Yes. So thanks Karina. So this was our presentation. Thanks everybody for joining. We are all part of the Hyperledger Climate Action and Accounting Special Interest Group and are working to make a global climate accounting system reality. We are an open source group with a community of talented students and professionals all over the world and everyone is welcome to join. Our next call will be on Tuesday, June 15 at 9am Pacific. We will drop the information into the chat and yes please post your questions to the Q&A and we hope to answer at least one or two of them. Thanks everybody. Thanks Robin. Thanks Kamnish. We have one question to end this session. Feel free to answer. So it's a question from Inbal. Can blockchain help companies with a better CSR goal reporting? So the CSR is the Corporate Social Responsibility Score. So can anyone answer this question? Yeah I think I can take this one. So huge companies I think in Europe it's about 500 employees or maybe it's even more are by law kind of forced to report on their social and responsibility. And at the moment it is like a very manual effort to gather all the information. If you think of a blockchain based system and maybe you're a manufacturer and you go all down your supply chain and now different suppliers also use this blockchain technology to maybe provide information about the carbon footprint of their products or working conditions and if this is stored immutably and audited on a blockchain and it has an identity then you could just use this as a proof for your own CSR report or you could use the proof of your suppliers as your own proof. I hope this makes it kind of clear and Kamnish or Kalina if you want to elaborate on this. Yeah so I can add for example like that extended producer responsibility which is also the kind of responsibility of brand to kind of prove like how much plastic or any waste they are reprocessing. So similarly we could do any kind of CSR tracking on the blockchain. Just we need the trust and transparency on the platform and if CSR need that kind of reporting then obviously we can implement the blockchain there. Great. Thank you Kamnish. Thank you Robin for this answer. We hope that we have given a few outputs to all of you and we will now end this panel. It was been a really good moment for everyone. So thank you for having joined us today and we hope to see you on the next Hyperledger 6 session. And thank you all. Thank you Robin. Thank you Kamnish and have a good day at the Hyperledger Global Forum. Goodbye everyone. Thanks and goodbye.


She's feeding, feeding, she's. Come on. Back from Sonoma. I would tell you. We survived. Made it back last night. Good morning. Just enjoying some vitamin D on the patio with a family. I'll give a thought and reflection on the race here in a little bit. Just soaking up the boys right now. Out of hours. Still Ninja Turtles around here. Still Ninja Turtles. Yeah. From the trip. I am a hurting unit. Very, very sore. And the ankle, you know, feels a little better than yesterday. So that's a good sign. But it's just tender in the area that popped. So anyway, but it does feel a little better. Yeah. It's just, I'm just feeling it right now. It's just, it's just tight. I don't know. I'm still going to have it looked at. Despite the negative of not being able to finish positive is that I got fresh pair of new socks. Thank you. Lake Sonoma 50 for some new. I love socks. I love the brand socks. I've been so incredibly patient with my training for Lake Sonoma. We've kind of, I kind of was delaying finishing the playhouse. So the weather is good. Time to start. Time to keep working. Guys, thanks for being patient with me. Oh man. It's supposed to mix hot sauces. I don't know. Is that against FDA regulations? FDA regulations. I don't know. It's getting late. So I need you to hold me accountable. You too. Need your help. Need your help. Please don't ever let me ever, ever let me run another ultra race without a crew. All right. I love this sport. I love running. But you got to have a crew for an ultra race. Anything over even, even 25 miles, I would say, but definitely over 30 miles is considered an ultra race. 50 K and above. Never let me do it again. Like, oh man. It's so valuable to have a crew, which is a collection of your family members, friends who are there to support you to give you food along the way. So you don't have to carry it the whole way. You don't have to hand off your water bottles quickly. So you don't have to fill them up at every aid station, which takes time. You just, boom, pass and go, pass and go. And they can tell you how far ahead the next group of people is or how far ahead second places or first place or wherever you're at in the race. And that is invaluable information for your mental state in the middle of a race. So you got to hold me accountable. Don't ever let me run another ultra race without a crew. And so if you're out there, question of the day, I mean, I don't know how this will happen, but maybe we can coordinate down the road if I do an ultra race in New York, for example. And you're on the East Coast. Who knows? Maybe we can, you know, we can go and run races together. Or California, or Wisconsin, or Texas, or Oklahoma. I don't know if I'd run an ultra race in Oklahoma, but you never know. So just putting that out there, question of the day, would you like to crew an ultra race someday? And obviously Colorado. If you're in Colorado, like I'm going to be doing, well, I'm going to be doing one in Colorado. Actually two more in Colorado this year and one in Utah. So anyway, hold me accountable. I know that was a lot. The ankle is, the ankle is, it doesn't feel awesome. It doesn't feel awesome.


Hi, my name is Chris Raleigh, Director of Campaigns and Advocacy for the Center for Election Science. As the Director of Campaigns and Advocacy, well, I help with our ongoing campaigns. I build up our grassroots organization, including our chapter program, which many of you are a part of. And the rest of the time, I act as a resource for folks who want to empower the community to better voting methods. I live in Virginia with my partner Jane, right outside Washington, D.C., which we love. In better times, you could see us on taking a metro train to go have a drink someplace that we would put on our Instagram rail drinks. It's very clever and you should follow it. It's very fun. We love it so much that I even propose to her by surprising her on a moving metro train. That is a story for another day. I'm originally from St. Petersburg, Florida. Growing up, I was bit of a beach bum and didn't really pay attention to what I would do with my life.  Then in 2012, my friend took me to go knock on doors for the presidential campaign, and I was hooked. For years after that, I worked as a campaign manager on every kind of race from dog catcher to US Congress. I love working on campaigns. They are extremely fun and more people should work on them. It's so fun to be on the front page of history and to work as a team and to work on something bigger than yourself. occasionally I get the opportunity to pass that passion along to young people as a counselor at Florida American Legion Boy State, where young people learn to love our political process and to learn how to defend it. And speaking of which, working on campaigns is how I realize that even if my person won, the system was very, very broken. The system incentivized us as campaign people to talk to as few people as possible. It was a system that we were contributing to that made sure that year after year election after election, people got passed over. And it wasn't just the elections, they were getting passed over, was bleeding over into how these people were treated even after the elections were over. That system has got to end. It is bad for democracy. Democracy needs to fight back. It needs to upgrade, fight back. And I think approval voting is that upgrade. And I think in time, you will as well. So if you want to make a change in your community, drop me a line at chris-election-science.org.


Tasika hwini kajama kwa jun拿代aobi kwa h into hwana. Makaka niki kata kwa kutiki kwa hidenta kwa kona... ...rekwa mjewasim usinia fittingisakwa wakamikizu... ...kwa hila kli kwa mipishu mnda hainata hwana kwa hina kwa hivya. Kwa hiza hini kwa hisha kwa hisha kwa hisha kwa hisha kwa hisha. We have interrelationships with the players, the key partners in government, other institutions. Hilre is flooded with all the international institutions that we work with. So we hope that we will take advantage of that, not only ourselves but everyone else in this system will take advantage of our presence here to link up with these institutions and also upscale some of the technologies and innovations that they are coming up with. If we are near to the source of that information here in Hillary, the better for everyone and the better for our farmers, and we become more effective. Excellent. I think you can see from the attendance that people are quite enthusiastic about our presence in this country, not only on the campus but in the country. We have senior representations from government with the president of the DBE, minister of finance, minister of agricultural officials, very senior directors in the crowd. We have the UN also here, so it's a wonderful day. Fantastic.