Climate Change Progress: 10 Years on from the Paris Agreement

Laurent Fabius

President

Constitutional Council of the French Republic

Born in Paris in 1946, Laurent Fabius is a graduate of the Ecole normale supérieure and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration. Agrégé de lettres and former member of the Conseil d'Etat, he has held several government positions in France: Minister of the Budget, Minister of Industry and Research, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Prime Minister (1984-1986). He was a Member of Parliament and twice President of the French National Assembly, from 1988 to 1992, then from 1997 to 2000. In 2015, as President of COP 21, he played a crucial role in the negotiations and success of the Paris Climate Agreement, the first universal agreement to combat climate change. From 2016 to March 2025, he was President of the Constitutional Council of the French Republic. He is also the author of various books on national and international public life, as well as on art.

Dan Esty

Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law & Policy

Yale School of the Environment, Yale Law School

Dan Esty is the Hillhouse Professor at Yale University with primary appointments in the Law and Environment Schools – and secondary appointments in the Management and Global Affairs Schools. He also serves as director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy (www.yale.edu/envirocenter) and as co-director of the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance. Professor Esty has written or edited fourteen books (including the prizewinning volumes Green to Gold and A Better Planet) and dozens of articles on climate change, environmental protection, regulatory reform, and sustainability -- and their connections to corporate strategy, innovation, competitiveness, sustainability metrics, and trade. He held a number of leadership roles at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1989 - 93 including service on the U.S. delegation that negotiated the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change. From 2011-14, Professor Esty served as Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. He recently concluded two years of public leave from Yale – during which time he worked at the World Trade Organization helping WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala develop a sustainability strategy for the global trading system. He co-leads the Remaking Trade for a Sustainable Future Project and, with a network of thoughtleaders around the world, developed the Villars Framework for a Sustainable Trade System.