"Our existence depends on changing our growth and consumption habits"
WOMEN OF CHANGE: MODERN TIMES is talking to experienced Sandrine Dixson-Declève this time about sustainable growth and green development. She is now the leader of the European Commission's Expert Group for Research and Innovation.
Published: 2020-01-01
French-Belgian Sandrine Dixson-Declève (54) has thirty years of experience in European and international politics, business management and strategy. It is difficult to give her one professional title; she is an activist, special adviser, expert and politician - and is interested in topics such as EU, climate changes, green growth and sustainable development, energy and finance.
Dixson-Declève is recognized by Greenbiz as one of the thirty most influential women in the world driving changes in the low-carbon economy. In the political environment, she is known as a "leading European opinion leader", according to European expert Paal Frisvold. "Thanks for that title, though I've never really considered it myself - I just do what I feel is right and fit my vision of sustainable development, ”she says in our Brussels meeting.
My life motto is to make sure that we have influence as human beings, that we do what is right within the confines of the planet's boundaries.
She defines herself as a change agent: “My life motto is to make sure that we have influence as human beings, that we do the right thing within the boundaries of the planet's borders and live synchronously with which and each other. I think you have to be the leader you want to see, and I wish we had more leaders who wanted to break boundaries. ”
The family emigrated from Brussels to California when she was three years old. The hippie movement and the daunting climate movement shaped her to a great extent, but it was in the first organic grocery store in California she received an ecological awakening: “When I saw the labels indicating food producers were made socially and environmentally responsible, I became aware of how we can have a positive and sustainable impact on the planet by changing our consumption habits. It became my first real education in the subjects I would continue to care about for the rest of my life. ”
Green growth and financing
Five years ago, she helped create The Green Growth Platform together with the climate and environment ministers in the UK and Sweden respectively ...
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