Louise Guibert

July’s just around the corner. Is Paris ready to host the Summer Games? Mostly yes if you listen to France's president on hand for the inauguration of the Olympic village.The Olympic village, one of the few venues built from scratch for an event that promised sustainability and for the most part, to showcase existing structures. A total budget of less than 9 billion euros makes for 40-percent less than the London Olympics of 2012.

Don’t bet the family farm on it…Politicians in Paris, Warsaw, Brussels, Delhi won’t magically find the quick fix for an agriculture sector that’s gone global at the expense of small producers. Why is it erupting all over, including here in France? Many of those who heckled President Macron at the opening of Paris’ big annual ag fair last Saturday say they wish they could live from the fruit of their labor but that new environmental norms and open borders make it impossible to compete.

Too little, too late or a milestone moment? The gavel going down on the annual UN climate summit with a final declaration that for the first time recognizes the need to transition away from fossil fuels. That was not a given when it was announced that the world's seventh largest oil producer would host COP28 in Dubai. As always, these summits conclude with at best statements of intention. So how much will this one matter?