“Counting for the living”

While international sustainability standards are at the heart of a geopolitical and scientific battle, Alexandre Rambaud, economist, co-director of the chair Ecological accounting and Chairholder Double Materiality at the Louis Bachelier Institute, calls for an urgent change of direction.

In an interview published by The Good, he warns against the growing dominance of an approach strictly financial environmental reporting, in particular carried out by the ISSB. A vision that he deems “scientifically inconsistent and politically dangerous” because it reduces sustainability to what affects business value — not what businesses affect in the real world.

Europe at a turning point

The European Union had taken the lead with the ESRS and the Double Materiality, the central principle of the Chair he heads at ILB. But international pressure, especially American, threatens this balance. If Europe gives in, it risks losing its leadership on sustainability... just as China is accelerating the implementation of ambitious environmental standards.

Why does it matter

For Alexandre Rambaud, accounting is not a simple compliance tool. It is a strategic lever to align the economy with global boundaries. It should serve as an instrument for ecological and geopolitical management, by integrating the real impacts of organizations on ecosystems.

He also recalls that France already has a scientific and operational edge, thanks in particular to the C.A.R.E. method and to the work carried out within the framework of the Double Materiality Chair of the Louis Bachelier Institute, which structures research on:

• the conceptual and operational study of Dual Materiality,
• the construction of methodological tools,
• the structuring and governance of the data necessary for truly sustainable accounting.

A clear message to decision makers

To transform our models, we must “stop counting to please the market and start counting for the living”.

Find the complete analysis and the complete interview here:
👉 Read the full article on The Good hither

👉 Discover the ILB Dual Materiality Chair : Double Materiality

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