FraNce, here aNd there

Transcription

advancing • understanding • sharing • analysing • discovering • creating
France,
here and there
Energy, research, industry and culture:
France’s strengths constantly build bridges
with the rest of the world.
No.17
CONTENTS
contributors
Editorial
The economic crisis and the issue of climate
change mean that many countries are reviewing the
P• 4 to 7SNAPSHOTS
Total facts
World figures
P• 8 to 9advancing
Jacques Perrin, the young man and the sea
P• 12 to 15“France must work to civilise
globalisation”
2
3
4
5
6
7
P• 16 to 19Energy and climate change: global challenges
on a local scale
Enlightenment on research
P• 25 to 30“French-style enterprise means being fully
part of globalisation”
P• 31 to 33
French culture, a plural identity?
P• 34 to 39 sharing
Portraits from China and Singapore
P• 40 to 43analysing
• From oil revenues to the sustainable economy
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
• Producer and consumer countries:
the keys to a win-win relationship
1 - Christophe de Margerie,
Chief Executive Officer, Total. P. 03.
2 - Hubert Védrine, French Foreign
Affairs Minister from 1997 to 2002.
P. 12 to 15.
3 - Virginie Schwarz, Director of
Operations for Energy, Air and Noise
at France’s Environment and Energy
Management Agency (Ademe).
P. 16 to 19.
4 - Manoelle Lepoutre, Executive
Vice President, Sustainable Development
and Environment, Total. P. 16 to 19.
5 - Damien Desjonquères, Societal
Manager, Total Sustainable Development
and Environment Department. P. 17.
6 - Jean-François Minster, Senior
Vice President, Scientific Development,
Total. P. 20 to 24.
7 - Michel Hourcard, Senior Vice
President Development and Operations
Techniques, and Senior Vice President
for the Scientific and Technical Centre
in Pau, Exploration & Production, Total.
P. 21.
8 - Bernard Seiller, Vice President
Research & Development of Strategy
Business Development Engineering
02
R&D, Exploration & Production, Total.
P. 21.
9 - Marc Fischer, Strategy and
Development of Solar Activity, Gas &
Power, Total. P. 24.
10 - Marc Vermeersch, Head
of R&D Department Solar & New
Energies, Gas & Power, Total. P. 24.
11 - Laurence Parisot, President
of the French Employers’ Federation
(Medef). P. 25 to 30.
12- Iwann Le Du, Caudalie Human
Resources Manager. P. 26.
13 - Véronique Arfi, Phytorem
co-founder. P. 27.
14 - Bernard Benayoun, Phytorem
co-founder. P. 27.
15 - Jean-Jacques Guilbaud, Chief
Administrative Officer of Total. P. 29.
16 - Marie-Automne Thépot,
Head of Implementation, Experimental
Youth-Development Fund, Office of the
High Commissioner for Youth. P. 30.
17 - Stéphane Martin, Quai Branly
Museum’s President. P. 31 to 33.
18 - Françoise Demange,
Chief Curator of Oriental Antiquities
at the Louvre Museum. P. 32.
© Bregardis/Andia.fr (Up)-RISLER-FRANCEDIAS/ONLYFRANCE.FR (Down)
P• 44 to 49discovering
The microcapital revolution
P• 50 to 54creating
A hip-hop world
role they play on the international stage. France is a relatively small country, but
we have a number of strengths that will help us rise to future challenges. We have
great agricultural potential, technological expertise in a number of key areas,
attractive opportunities for investors and tourism, not to mention a culture and
linguistic influence that other countries envy. France also boasts 40 companies
among the top 500 in the world and energy companies of international scope,
including, of course, our own.
Since its foundation as the Compagnie française des pétroles in the Middle East,
Total has grown both in France and abroad. In Pau, in the south of France, our
research centre has recently increased its computer calculating power. In the United
States, Total has acquired a stake in an innovative start-up company. In Toulouse,
the Group’s photovoltaic module plant is tripling its production capacity. And in
South Africa and Morocco we are investing in energy-access programmes based on
solar power. For an energy supplier like Total, “here and there” means being present
throughout the energy chain, from production zones in northern Europe, West
Africa or the Middle East to consumer countries in Europe or Asia.
“Total is fortunate to have strong
roots in France and benefit from the high
standards in French research institutes
and the education system, as well as
the skills of the workforce of this country”
Being “here and there” also means forging and maintaining ties with communities,
especially when times are tough. This entails maintaining a presence in producer
countries when others are pulling out, and helping to prepare for the post-oil era
by taking part in training schemes and strengthening the local fabric with the
help of French institutions. It also means helping French SMEs to grow and gain
a foothold in the export market: it is a little-known fact, but Total has been doing
this for decades.
Faced with the challenges of tomorrow—and today—France can count on a
national asset like the Total group to help it make the most of globalisation and
solve the energy equation. At the same time, Total is fortunate to have strong roots
in France and benefit from the high standards in French research institutes and
its education system, as well as the skills of its workforce. Total is convinced of
this, and that is why we are so attached to France. We must consolidate the
sometimes complex ties that bind us to the French people, and we need to
appreciate their concerns and explain how we are fulfilling our commitments.
This issue of Energies addresses all these topics.
N°17 Winter 2010
Christophe de Margerie
Chief Executive Officer, Total
Cover photos, top to bottom:
the Paris hotel and casino
with its illuminated Eiffel Tower,
Las Vegas; Alexandre III bridge
and the Eiffel Tower, Paris.
© Thierry Gonzalez
P• 20 to 24
© Thomas Déron/Graphix-Images
france, here and there
P• 10 to 33 understanding
© photo Credits: 1 - MICHEL LABELLE - 2 - DR - 3 - Jacques LE GOFF/ADEME - 4 - PHILIPPE SCHAFF - 5 - Marco Dufour - 6 - 7 - STÉPHANE de BOURGIES/TOTAL - 8 - Marco Dufour
9-10 - Étienne Follet - 11 - Medef - 12 - DR - 13-14 - Phytorem - 15 - philippe demail - 16 - Marco Dufour - 17 - Greg Semu/musée du quai Branly - 18 - DR.
1
The Coupole Tower,
Total’s headquarters
at La Défense, France (top).
Liquefaction plant
in Balhaf, Yemen (bottom).
No.17
03
04
No.17
171.7
144.9
132.2
121.8
98.7
78.1
Department of the Treasury/Federal Reserve Board, November 17, 2009.
*The oil-exporting countries include Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Algeria, Gabon, Libya and Nigeria.
**The Caribbean banks include the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Dutch West Indies and Panama.
80%
of housework is carried out in France by women.
According to a survey in 2005 conducted among women in couples aged between
20 and 49 years, eight out of 10 “always” or “most often” do the ironing and seven out
of 10 the cooking. Repeated in 2008 among the same women, the survey shows that
the arrival of a child “increases the imbalance of chores between partners”, a situation
largely due to the changes women make to their professional lives: 25% of women
reduce their hours or give up work altogether for their first child, 32% in the case
of a second child. The degree of satisfaction among women (on a scale of 1 to 10)
with regard to the distribution of chores increases with the number of children.
Thus, 30% of women without children gave a score below eight out of 10, a proportion
reaching 50% of women with at least three children.
Difference between refining
capacities and oil demand
8
7
Population & societies, No. 461, November 2009, INED.
6
Carbon reports compared
5
CO2 emission
in millions of tonnes
4
150
3
2
100
1
50
CENTRAL AND
SOUTH AMERICA
MIDDLE EAST
EUROPE OF 25
0
Replacing leisure and utility vehicles
in the United States by vehicles that meet
EU fuel consumption norms would almost
compensate for the emissions generated by
providing electricity to the 1.8 billion people
without access to electricity.
-1
ASIA-PACIFIC
-2
-3
UNITED STATES
The World Bank’s annual World
Development Report 2010.
No.17
2008
-4
-100
-150
WORLD
2007
-50
EMISSIONS
REDUCED
In millions
barrels/day
2006
0
EMISSIONS
INCREASED
Piracy, an ancient risk with modern faces,
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, June 2009.
2005
Taiwan
2004
Luxemburg
2003
Russian Federation
2002
Hong Kong
2001
Brazil
2000
Caribbean banks**
1999
Uncovered in 2000, Pazflor oilfield is located
150 kilometres from the Angolan coast at water
depths of between 600 and 1,200 metres. From
2011, Pazflor will produce up to 220,000 barrels
per day. Two types of crude oil will be processed
simultaneously: light oil from the deep sedimentary layer and a heavier oil, more difficult to
produce and found in a shallower sedimentary layer. The heavy oil will be processed on the sea bed,
a world first for a field of this size, using three gas-liquid separation and pumping units (see image
above). Total, the operator, has partnered up with Statoil, BP and Esso on behalf of Angola’s national
oil company, Sonangol.
185.3
Oil-exporting countries*
1998
Pazflor,
technological
prowess
249.3
United Kingdom
1997
3D graphique © techniques-effects.com 2008
R&D
751.5
Japan
1996
© RepoRtage MARCO DUFOUR
Louise-Michel secondary school in Bobigny,
École Centrale Paris and Total launched
the first “Initiative for Women” forum on
2 December 2009. This event, designed
to inform girls about the higher education
and career opportunities in science,
is one of many initiatives to support diversity
and equal opportunities organised by
Centrale Paris and Total. Twenty students
from École Centrale Paris and as many
women engineers from Total came
to share information, testimonials and
advice—and give vocational inspiration—
to some 500 pupils from schools in
the Seine-Saint-Denis area.
© PHU QUY POC
To promote
the sciences to women
of maritime piracy were recorded in the
first quarter of 2009, compared to 53 in the
same period of 2008. While the number of
vessels attacked has nearly doubled, this is
essentially due to the resurgence of pirates
along the Somalia and Gulf of Aden coasts,
a region accounting for 61 attacks alone.
Indonesia, however, the piracy hotspot
from 2003 to 2007, has seen the risk
of piracy significantly reduced: just one
incident was reported, in the Strait of
Malacca, during the first quarter of 2009.
The reduction in piracy in this major
strategic route can be put down to patrol
reinforcements and the heightened
vigilance of nearby countries (Indonesia,
Malaysia and Singapore).
798.9
Mainland China
1995
Yves-Louis Darricarrère, President of Total Exploration & Production.
In billions of dollars as at September 2009
1994
“The production start
of Yemen LNG is the
successful outcome
of a cooperation
between Total and its partners over the last decade.
Since Yemen’s gas potential was discovered,
Total has supported Yemen in developing its gas
industry and in becoming an LNG exporter.”
102acts
Main holders of US treasury bonds
1993
With 246,000 barrels of oil
equivalent per day,
the Asia-Pacific region
accounted for 11% of the
Group’s total production
and nearly 50% of liquefied
natural gas (LNG) output
in 2008. The discovery of oil
in the Lac Da Nau prospect,
in the southern part of the
block in the Vietnamese
offshore, further confirmed
the buoyant prospects
of the region. The first well
drilled and first discovery
made on Block 15-01/05,
the 15-01/05 exploration
well is located about
65 kilometres off the coast
and was drilled in a water
depth of 45 metres. The well
produced 4,200 barrels per
day during tests performed
in the basement.
world figures
© graphics: Michel berget / total
Vietnam
Pages created by Fouez Balit and Laure Mentzel
© Thierry GONZALEZ
Yemen LNG,
15 October 2009
Snapshots
total facts
IFP from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 2008.
05
(logarithmic scale)
100
TOTAL
(average per decade)
CARS
(+buses +motorbikes)
10
comScore World Metrix; Word of the Web guidelines
for advertisers, Microsoft Advertising, 2009.
WALKING
11 States
1
comprise
the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF),
whose Charter came into force in July 2009.
The signatory countries include Russia, Iran, Qatar,
Venezuela, Bolivia, Algeria and Nigeria. Kazakhstan,
the Netherlands and Norway hold observer status.
The Charter grants the GECF with a permanent
secretariat and a head office based in Qatar.
The aim of the organisation is to improve
the coordination and defend the interests of its
member States. The 11 signatories represent
64% of the world gas reserves and 41% of exports
by gas pipeline. Unlike OPEC, GECF’s statutes
do not include mechanisms to control prices
through production quotas.
Exploration/production and refining investments,
IFP, 2009; www.gecforum.com.qa
TRAINS
0.1
PLANES
HORSES
0.01
1%
Production capacity
of wind energy
25,369 MW
of public
and private funds donated
to research on disease
were used to fight pneumonia
in 2007. This “neglected disease”,
the second cause of child mortality
in Africa, kills 4,000 children
worldwide every day, more than
measles, malaria and AIDS
combined. Without more
substantial investment to prevent
and cure pneumonia, the
Millennium Development Goal 4,
which aims to reduce by two-thirds
the deaths of under five-year-olds
by 2015, will not be met.
To put things in perspective,
AIDS, tuberculosis and
malaria received 80% of funds
in 2007.
Total electricity output
from wind energy worldwide
(194 TWh) in 2008 is enough
to satisfy the electricity
consumption of a country
the size of Australia.
Germany
23,902 MW
Spain
16,740 MW
China
12,200 MW
India
9,645 MW
IRIN, UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, 2009; Neglected
disease research and development,
The George Institute for International
Health, 2008.
IEA Wind Energy, Annual Report 2008.
06
on the gas
The development plan of the Timimoun gas project, to be operated
conjointly by Total (37.75%), Sonatrach (51%) and Cepsa (11.25%),
was approved by the Algerian National Oil and Gas Development
(ALNAFT) in October 2009. The plan entails drilling around
40 wells to tap eight
structures over an area of
2,500 square kilometres.
From 2013, Timimoun is
expected to produce about
1.6 billion cubic metres of
gas a year. Following the
acquisition of a 49% interest
in the Ahnet licence with its
partner Partex, Total plans to
step up its activity in the
southwestern Algerian gas
province. Located near
the town of In Salah, the
exploration and development
licence covers an area of
17,358 square kilometres.
Its resources are estimated
at 500 billion cubic metres
of gas. These projects
reinforce Total’s commitment
to investing in Algeria and
its long-standing cooperation
with Sonatrach.
Total ramps up R&D
in solar energy
Total has signed three major partnerships with world-leading science
institutions. The first, signed on 21 September 2009, saw Total, GDF SUEZ
and their common subsidiary Photovoltech partner up with Imec and
its research programme to improve the use of crystalline silicon and
the effectiveness of solar cells. Hot on its heels, Total and the LPICM*,
a joint R&D research team between the French National Centre for Scientific
Research (CNRS) and France’s École Polytechnique engineering school,
announced on 29 September 2009 the creation of a joint research team
in the area of thin film technologies for photovoltaic solar applications.
The third initiative concerns a research agreement signed on
3 November 2009 between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
and Total to develop a new stationary battery designed to enable the storage
of solar power. The primary goal of the three partnerships is to reduce
the cost of solar energy to accelerate its deployment.
*Laboratoire de Physique des Interfaces et Couches Minces.
1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Yves Crozet, Lyon 2 University.
United States
Southwestern
Algeria steps
© MARCO DUFOUR
Kilometres
total facts
© MARCO DUFOUR
people worldwide used online social
networking sites in June 2008, a 25% increase
on June 2007. The largest contingent is found
in Asia which accounts for 200 million users,
followed by Europe (165 million) and North
America (131 million). Africa-Middle East, which
recorded the most significant rise of 66%, is home
to just 30 million social networkers. Internet users
cite expanding their professional networks,
keeping in contact with friends and family,
expressing opinions and making new
acquaintances as the top reasons for networking.
No.17
© graphics : Michel berget / total
580million
Modes of transport
through the decades
snapshots
world figures
Qatar turns gas into plastic
Qatar was one of the highlights for Total in 2009.
After the start-up of the liquefied natural gas project
Qatargas 2 and the opening of Total Research Centre,
the Group inaugurated Qatofin’s polymer unit, one of
Petrochemicals’ major projects, in November 2009.
Francis Raatz, who oversaw the project as Senior
Vice President Research, Technology & Engineering
at Total Petrochemicals, explains.
Tell us more about the Qatofin project.
This project, whose first contracts were signed starting in 2002, is intended
to produce ethane-based linear low-density polyethylene, a plastic mainly
used in wrap films production. Total is present all along the production chain,
from gas to polymer. Natural gas from the Dolphin project*, for example,
is comprised of methane and 6% to 8% of ethane. Once it is separated,
ethane is transformed into ethylene through the new steam cracker located
in Ras Laffan, 50% of which is owned by Qatofin. This cracker, among
the largest in the world, will produce 1.3 million tonnes per year of ethylene
that will be routed through a 110 km gas pipeline to Mesaieed, south of
the country. It will then supply Qatofin’s polyethylene production unit.
Mesaieed (representing an overall investment of $1.3 billion for Qatofin).
In particular, Total Petrochemicals is directly responsible for the project
management of the Mesaieed unit in which it holds a 50% share,
directly and through Qapco. Construction, that started late in 2005, required
more than 14.4 million man-hours. Today, it is our largest polyethylene
plant and the first component of the Qatofin project to be inaugurated,
shortly before the cracker in Ras Laffan. The polyethylene unit can then
operate at full capacity and supply the regional market as well as Europe
and the growing Asian markets.
How is this project strategic for Total Petrochemicals?
It meets our strategic objectives to diversify our feedstock by replacing
naphtha (oil derivative traditionally used in the petrochemical industry)
with ethane that is much more competitive in the current market structure.
Qatofin is also a project that strengthens our relationship with Qatar,
in particular with our historical partner Qapco that will operate
the Mesaieed unit. Qatar, where the Group has been present since 1936,
is a key country; it owns 15% of global gas reserves and a significant share
of ethane reserves.
Interview by Sabine Schierano
What was Total Petrochemicals’ role in the Qatofin project?
Total Petrochemicals is technologically involved in the project’s three
components: the cracker, the gas pipeline and the polyethylene unit in
*Of which Total holds a 24.5% interest.
No.17
07
THE ENERGY TO advance
© Christophe CHEYSSON/Mathieu SIMONET/Pascal KOBEH/Galatee Films/PASCO
Jacques Perrin,
the young man and the sea
Through his films, Jacques Perrin, 69, is an unbelievable Pygmalion for hope. A prolific
actor, director and producer, he has just completed Océans, a breathtaking journey
through the life and biodiversity that exist in the sea depths. Co-produced with
Jacques Cluzaud and François Sarano and sponsored by the Total Foundation,
this titanic project is an homage to nature and the freedom it offers us.
The notion of the “grande famille du cinéma”, the cliché perpetually rolled
out to describe the attendees of the Césars, may raise a smile. Yet it truly is a
sense of family we feel when coming to meet Jacques Perrin to discuss the
upcoming release of his film Océans. A private interview was out of the question. After all, he co-directed the film with Jacques Cluzaud, and was assisted
by many others, just as essential. Yes, but we are writing a profile, we politely
reply. No difference, the distinguished, immaculately-coiffed man shows us
no mercy: it’s all or nothing. A star’s caprice? No, a huge favour to some
journalists eager to get to grips with the man. As we were about to discover,
Jacques Perrin is never isolated out of context or his team. He is the discernible part of an industrious and fertile iceberg.
We enter a small hive of activity and quickly notice there is nothing grandiloquent about Galatée Films, the production company founded and managed
by Jacques Perrin. In reception, a young woman with a Spanish accent is reading a book on French stylistics, but no sooner are we inside than someone comes
to meet us. “You have an appointment with Jacques?” Well, kind of. Rather with
the actor who took our breath away as the enchanting singer in the musical
films of Jacques Demy or the solemn hero in the films of Costa Gavras and
Schoendoerffer. But no, it’s Jacques who comes to greet us, surrounded by his
two associates: Jacques Cluzaud, his co-director, and François Sarano, the film’s
scientific advisor. “Depending on what customary practice dictates, can I offer
you something to drink?” Despite his 69 years and intimidating rank of celebrity, he has the perfect manners of the ideal son-in-law. And a sense of humour,
apparently. A few minutes later, we are chatting around the table like old friends,
our hands wrapped around a steaming mug of hot tea.
The classic questions will have to wait; we don’t have the heart to speak to
the trio about anything other than the film that has occupied their time for
the past seven years and which comes out in a few weeks. So career paths,
awards and the industry are off-topic, for the moment in any case. If Jacques
(let’s call him Jacques, after all, he practically begged us to) wants to talk to
us, it’s about Océans—and we want to hear what he has to say. The project
would win over the most fanatical environmental objectors: film makers
turned explorers venturing into virgin territory. Wonderment, sensation and
08
emotion were intentional choices. “Océans is us being immersed into a sea
teeming with life in order to experience the primitive harmony which reigns in
the last uncharted territory on the planet.” It’s swimming with the fish, a childhood dream and an artistic manifesto that you feel has matured over many
years. The crest line connecting the boy and the man is a political and poetic engagement. It’s not about showing the fish but becoming “a fish among
the fish”. Panicking when we spot a hungry shark or fishing net, dancing to
the rhythm of humpback whales. For years, the two Jacques have worked at
a “natural symphony”, hoping that these images would be engraved on our
retinas like an operatic aria becomes engraved in our auditory memory.
A symphonic odyssey
The choice of the word symphony is no coincidence. The musicality of
Océans is collective and not vocal. The film is deliberately spare on commentary. Hearing our enthusiastic hosts volubly recount their shared odyssey,
this silence was clearly a great sacrifice. “What did each of you contribute?”
we manage to slip in between two adventurous tales about manta rays and
baby turtles, violent storms and moving light. The three friends then launch
into a staggering battle of egos, each obstinately defending the others. Jacques
Perrin was “inspired by Jacques Cluzaud’s experience” (far more extensive than
his own) “and François’ knowledge”. François swiftly replies that Jacques
acquainted him with the sea in a way his own experience never allowed. A
doctor of oceanography and diver, he has “never understood the sea as I understand it today”—and this from a man who took part in Cousteau’s Calypso
expedition. “But then,” pressing for an answer, “what did Jacques Perrin bring,
if you don’t have Cluzaud’s experience or Sarano’s multiple skills?” Driven into
a corner, the actor, director and producer relents: “What did I bring to the
film? Something fundamental and essential, quite simply.” The three men
erupt into laughter… in chorus, it goes without saying. Seeing our crest-fallen
faces, Jacques Perrin carries on: “I’m the producer, the bursar. My role is to
restrain, pay attention, which is a bit of a problem because I’m not really one
for putting limits on dreams.” An even bigger problem considering that nothing was too expensive or excessive to ensure the film lived up to the ambitions
No.17
From left to right: Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud and François Sarano during the filming of Océans.
of its creators. Even if it meant putting Galatée Films at risk, which he didn’t
hesitate to do for Le Peuple migrateur, before his finances were miraculously
saved by Les Choristes. Another extraordinary thing was that he gave his team
members time. “I’m patient, but then it’s a wonderful thing to wait for the
things you hope for,” declares Jacques Perrin, who is clearly a man of many
gifts, not least a way with words. But does he also have the ability to be everywhere at once? Judging by the map of the world attached to the wall,
showing all the locations where filming took place (not a single destination
is unmarked), you can well believe it.
The champion of hope
“Much of what I do is the coordination, the preparation,” he plays down, suddenly adopting the demeanour of a kindly solicitor. “I have that unenviable
task of finding the money.” Nothing new there for a man who set up his first
production company in 1968 aged just 27. What made him get so passionately involved in what seems like such hard work? Why wasn’t he contented
enough (as we would be) by his highly successful career of actor as validated
by leading directors such as Clouzot, Blier, Chabrol, Schoendoerffer and
Costa Gavras? “We’re led to believe there is a market economy that exists and
which governs the materialisation of projects. I believe there are films that create
their own market. But for this to happen they need to exist.” Jacques Perrin the
producer’s story began when a young, angel-faced star with political conviction
running through his veins used his reputation to make a film happen: the
unforgettable Z by Costa Gavras, which awakened the public conscience to
the dangers of totalitarianism. To avoid ending on a serious note, the cinematic Shiva turns mischievous Machiavellian. “I am the champion of the film,
the one who stands before it. My technique is to use few words, first you need to
grab their attention, with something resonant. Once the listener is reeled in,
then and only then can we move forward. In the direction that we want to, but
also what we believe they want us to. A bit deceitful, no?” His associates come
to his defence: not deceitful, psychological. Jacques Cluzaud is filled with
wonder, dumbfounded: “Jacques could even get a banker excited.” Perrin the
clown disappears and it is the precious friend, taciturn confidant and child
in a man’s body who speaks to us. “With the possibility to convince and sway
people sometimes comes confidence.” The confidence he shows us preceded
the film: his first experience with the sea. “When I was a little boy in Granville,
I heard the sound of waves breaking on the shingle. It was so deafening I thought
I could never go back.” He goes on to talk about the confidences shared with
the fishermen as a teenager, surrounded by wood panelling and the smell of
sardines. For there lies the true subject of Océans: to produce or re-produce
an image of the sea with all its odours, colours and sounds. Jacques Perrin
the advocate returns: “At school there needs to be lessons about nature and
things very early on; that’d be just as useful as civics.” He sums up his artistic
and militant journey in one word: hope.
“What is hope? It’s health and happiness for each and every one of us. In the
1960s and 70s, we hoped that democracy would conquer every shore. Today, other
types of shore are appealing, fascinating, exhilarating. What’s the point of liberty
if we have nothing to eat, nowhere to swim, places we can’t walk? Nature has to
remain free; it’s not just our back garden.” Between shores, Jacques Perrin never
changes. In an hour, we have met Demy’s bereted sailor, inviting us into his
production company that resembles the set of a musical film; Costa Gravas’
militant democrat; the bearded narrator from Océans, and the child to whom
he speaks. A free man, a committed man. Unfettered man, you will always
cherish the sea! The words of Baudelaire have never rung so true. n
Laure Mentzel
No.17
09
The
energy to understand
Titre
rubrisue
here and there
© Hervé LENAIN/hemis.fr
France,
© RalF Schwanen/dr
Energy, research, industry
and culture: France’s strengths
constantly build bridges
with the rest of the world.
10
11
understanding
France, here and there
PondicherRy,
India.
Energy and climatic crises, the growing importance of emerging countries and the
construction of Europe… What means does France have at its disposal to meet these
challenges? Hubert Védrine, French Foreign Affairs Minister from 1997 to 2002, gives us
his views on the place France has in this new competitive and multipolar world.
How would you characterise today’s world?
Hubert Védrine: Since the end of the USSR in 1991-1992, and thus the end
of the rift between East and West, our world has been “de-compartmentalised”. But despite the market economy, the media, the Internet etc., that doesn’t
mean our world is unified, and it has certainly not become uniform. Furthermore, opinions diverge on the exact nature of today’s world. Is its defining
characteristic the universal influence of Western values, which would therefore imply the “end of History(1)”? Or is it, on the contrary, threatened by a
“clash of civilisations(2)”, a theory much decried but still persistent?” Is our
world, already dominated by the new bi-polar relationship between the United
States and China, becoming multipolar? Or will that world become a free-forall? All these theories are being debated, but the most optimistic scenarios
have already lost ground. In reality, our world is multipolar and competitive—
which in itself is an enormous change.
In French, there are two terms, mondialisation (worldisation) and
globalisation. What’s the difference?
H. V.: “Worldisation” is a much older notion (when talking about the 16th cen-
tury, historians often refer to “Iberian worldisation”) that for French-speakers
refers to a historical and political process. The term “globalisation” is more
recent. It was coined by the Americans to describe the economy of the last
20 years. Some people think one term is derogatory while the other it is more
neutral. Both are descriptive terms but neither has a scientific and universally
accepted meaning. They are often interchangeable.
What are France’s strengths and weaknesses now that we are
competing in a globalised world? And how well will we cope with
the key global challenges of the 21st century: demography, food
supply, migration, security, etc.?
H. V.: Our main weakness is that we French suffer from a chronic lack of self-
confidence. We are the most pessimistic of all Western people when asked about
an end to the current crisis. This pernicious doubt can be seen in our frequent
confusion between the need to have a lucid view of History and the masochistic
and expiatory notion of a “duty to remember” that has emerged in the last few
years. It is also visible in a rather demobilising vision of the European Union,
according to which states are too “weak” to handle the world on our own and will
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be “left behind” if we don’t have Europe to act for us. On the contrary, we should
see Europe in terms of a collective effort. Admittedly, this demobilising vision of
our future within Europe is not as strong as it was before the economic crisis.
As for our strengths, we have many: economic, technological, industrial, agricultural, intellectual, cultural and above all human. Without these assets,
France—whose population and territory are far smaller than those of the country-continents—could never have played the role in world history that it has
played for several centuries, and is still playing today. There are 192 member
countries in the United Nations, and a lot of them would be happy to boast the
strengths that France enjoys. But saying that, to list our strengths seems to
offend my masochistic compatriots.
More specifically, how well will France cope with energy security
and climate change?
H. V.: As regards access to energy and expertise in nuclear power, we have a
number of strengths: Total, GDF Suez and EDF. Thanks to our companies
and our diplomatic skills, over the past few decades we have been able to negotiate many valuable agreements with producing countries. But at the same
time, we must speed up development of the most promising renewable energies. Priorities here will depend on a study of the ecological and economic
aspects of each technology. We may well place most emphasis on solar energy.
As for climate change, here too France’s greatest strength is our emphasis on
nuclear power generation, which results in less CO2 emissions. As for emissions reduction targets, France undoubtedly has the scientific, economic and
human capacity to bring about the necessary eco-transformation of our country, which will take between 15 and 20 years, provided the changes are properly
explained in political terms. By properly I mean over the long term and in
terms that motivate the population.
What role can France’s large industrial groups play in meeting
these two challenges?
H. V.: A unique role that is both crucial and determining. But before they
can do that, the government must determine a strategic direction to follow
and decide on the key focus of research. After that, it’s a matter of economic
and industrial development, prospecting for partners, negotiations, studying
markets, and finally signing agreements. That is the role of business, and if
No.17
© Christophe BOISVIEUX/HOA-QUI/Eyedea
“France must work to
civilise globalisation”
our companies are to be bold and victorious they will need public support.
In exchange they will be expected to be models of responsibility. And of
course local authorities as well as a whole host of other organisations have a
role to play too.
In 2007 you drafted a report on globalisation(3). Have there been
any new developments since then that will work in favour of a
France that moves in step with globalisation rather than resisting
it? And do you see any unfavourable factors?
H. V.: The general public now has a better understanding of the real mecha-
nisms of a world that is becoming multipolar as a result of the economic crisis
and the spectacular rise of the emerging economies. Today, public opinion has
gone beyond the primitive binary stage: for or against globalisation. In Europe,
the Treaty of Lisbon—from which we should not, moreover, expect miracles—
has put an end to 15 years of generally sterile institutional controversies that
caused Europeans to waste a great deal of time in implementing new policies,
on energy for example. At this stage, the split of competencies—on the one
hand between the European Union and member States and on the other hand
between the different European institutions themselves—is no longer going to
change very much. This is an invaluable stability factor that will help Europeans “buy into” the idea of Europe once again. But more than any other country
in Europe, France still doubts about her strengths. Another negative factor is
the absence of any real consensus between left-wing and right-wing parties on
the strategy we should be following in a globalised world. In order to be effective, that strategy should be a long-term one—I’m talking 10 to 15 years—and
involve a very pragmatic combination of openness, reforms, adaptation, protective measures and regulations.
Is there still a role for a French foreign policy?
H. V.: France is undoubtedly the only country in the world where people might
ask that question. That’s because in France people confuse foreign policy with
the desire to spread French influence all over the world (here I’m referring to the
actions of Louis XIV and Napoleon, the speeches of De Gaulle, the idea that
France is the “birthplace” of human rights, etc.). As a result, people think that if
France is no longer a fountainhead of civilisation, a guiding light for the universe,
but has become just a medium-sized power—that adjective, source of many
misunderstandings, does not accurately describe our real influence in world
affairs—then it would be pointless, out-dated and even pretentious to want to
keep on pursuing a foreign policy of our own. So we could, and indeed should,
be content with a sort of minimal foreign policy agreed by all 27 EU countries.
You will hardly be surprised that I completely reject this vision of things. The first
purpose of a foreign policy is to protect a country’s vital interests. Has this need
suddenly disappeared? Even the smallest little island-states in the Pacific have a
foreign policy; they focus on Australia, Japan and the United States, and on issues
like climate change, and they want their voice to be heard. All the other countries in the world, including our closest neighbours such as Germany, have foreign policies. Chancellor Angela Merkel maintains diplomatic relations by
travelling to Moscow, Beijing and Washington for example. The synthesis of
Europe has to be devised from the top down and not the bottom up.
France obviously has a duty to devise a foreign policy that reflects our interests
and our values and to implement that policy—depending on purpose, time and
place—either via the UN Security Council, bilaterally together with appropriate
partners, or as a member of the EU. Speaking of which, let us not forget that the
common core of the foreign policy of EU member states requires unanimous
agreement under the Treaty of Lisbon. In some cases, aspects of France’s foreign
policy concerning the Atlantic Alliance may still be decided in consultation with
the United States.
The Treaty of Lisbon is now in force. Does Europe have the means
to ensure its energy security?
H. V.: The Treaty of Lisbon does not guarantee energy security. That can only be
ensured by long-term contracts covering regular supply of adequate quantities of
energy at reasonable prices. And that sort of arrangement is in the interests of
both producers and consumer countries. All the Treaty does is provide an
improved—in principle—framework for decision-making.
In reality, we do need a European energy policy. The EU should give top priority here to the Energy Charter proposed by Jacques Delors. Although for the
time being Russia wants to keep its options open and is refusing this project.
So what we need before looking at a Charter is a preliminary agreement
between Germany, Poland and France, but also the United Kingdom and
Italy, on their policy towards Russian supplies.
The question of the geographical limits of Europe, and the project
for Europe has not yet been settled. Would you care to comment
on this?
H. V.: Now that the Treaty of Lisbon has been ratified, a majority of member
states want to pursue the process of enlargement. But how far should we go? It
is just common sense to set limits to this, but our partners refuse to discuss the
issue. My feeling is that it is reasonable to set a limit to the process, otherwise the
feeling of belonging to Europe will end up being diluted. This is already
reflected in the rising abstention rate during European Parliament elections.
Setting aside countries (Croatia and Turkey) with whom membership negotiations are already under way and should be carried through to their conclusion,
the best solution would be to draw up a list of countries that could be considered
for membership, when they are ready to join and the EU is ready to have them.
That list could include the western Balkan states, countries in Western Europe
and some countries lying between Russia and the EU. Once all of these are
members (that would make 35 or 40 member states) we could, indeed we
may have to, abolish the position of Commissioner responsible for
q
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13
understanding
paris, France.
Enlargement. But this suggested enlargement will shock people and
has no chance of being accepted, because in many circles Europe is seen as an
“idea” without roots, without an epicentre and without limits. Personally I think
the EU should be guided by common sense and geography so that we don’t
confuse Euro-citizens any more than they have been already.
As for Europe’s objectives, there are two: to preserve within Europe some sort of
social balance, in spite of globalisation; and to help regulate globalisation, to
civilise it. In that way we can build Europe into a power, a quiet power (peaceful
but not “pacifist”) despite the post-historic dreaming of European public opinion. But to do this we must be lucid and muster the political will. Let us not forget
that we are faced with multipolar competition that is only just beginning.
q
To what extent can France help Europe to be more realistic in
propagating its values, ideals and standards, and to become the
“regulator of the globalised world”?
H. V.: There are already those who want to make Europe more realistic. People
are weary of hearing optimistic but premature and inoperative statements
about an international “community”. And France itself must be clear about its
diagnosis of the state of the world and about its own objectives. We must pursue a policy that is in line with those objectives. France must work in concert
with Germany and the other countries in order to pull the proper regulatory
levers. In line with what was done before the G20 summits and in the spirit of
action taken before the Pittsburgh summit in September 2009.
Is today’s world governance satisfactory?
H. V.: Of course it isn’t. But then what do we mean by “world governance”?
It’s a term that linguists call a “carry-all”: you can put all sorts of meaning
into it. There’s the UN Security Council, the WTO, the IMF, now the G20
and—more or less—still the G8. But they are really “enclosures” within
which competition between world powers just continues. We shouldn’t personalise these international entities. Who exactly is the G20? And we
shouldn’t forget that there are other players involved, not just states. Companies and non-governmental actors for instance. And reality: the United
States-China relationship is intensifying.
One objective, very ambitious but achievable, is to set up a dialogue between
former dominant Western powers, that have become more realistic, and new
emerging powers, that are becoming more responsible. Cooperation here could
take the form of adoption of new standards—financial, ecological, social and so
forth. None of these norms can be imposed by Western countries alone, and all
of them are going to be the subject of tough negotiations in the years ahead.
© Bertrand Desprez/VU
How can these multilateral bodies be reformed? And does France
have a role to play in this?
H. V.: You would need the agreement of all members, in any case all those who
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N°17
have the power of veto, or at least a qualified majority. To reform the United
Nations, for example, requires a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly
as well as all five permanent members of the Security Council. So reform is
difficult. It was easier in 1919 and in 1945 because the victorious nations
decided everything. Now it’s different. There’s no comparison. As a member of
all these bodies France obviously has a role to play, and we have been playing
that role since 1945 through our representatives and via the numerous proposals we have put forward. The latest example is the role played by President
Sarkozy in getting France’s G8 partners, who were reeling under the impact of
the crisis, to finally agree to set up a G20.
And do you think the G20 is an adequate response to globalisation?
H. V.: The fact that we needed a G20 is an admission—and proof as well—that
the Western powers can no longer rule the roost. Gone are the days when we
could expect to see three-way conferences like Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam.
But let us remember once again: the G20 is not a person and not a power, it is
a framework, a forum where we can develop the world-level dialogue that the
future requires. This could happen during the coming meetings.
France, the “birthplace of human rights”, has proclaimed the universality of its values. But are they really universal?
H. V.: They are seen as philosophically universal by the French and other
nationalities throughout the world, particularly those living in countries where
those rights are ignored. But they are not universally accepted, and even less
often applied. This is a paradox. Getting human rights recognised by all countries is a worthy objective. And we should also include the new principles covering global ecology, because all nations are concerned here too.
What can France be especially proud of? What values should we
promote, and how should we go about it?
H. V.: France can always be proud of her past contribution to formulating these
universally applicable values. But that is not enough. We should not be content
to rest on laurels that have become a bit faded. France must work actively to
bring about a new synthesis for the future, a really universal dialogue this time,
between Western and emerging nations, a dialogue that will hopefully make
globalisation more civilised.
Is it still relevant to talk about France’s place in the world order?
Isn’t is really something of a “French obsession”?
H. V.: No, not at all. Quite the contrary! What nation on Earth does not ask
itself that question? All countries—whether they are immense, big, mediumsized or small—think about their world role. The United States does, so do
China, Russia, Israel, Spain, Germany, Singapore, Qatar… All countries do.
Name one of them that doesn’t care about its place in the world, when that
place has such tangible consequences for its national security, the living standard of its people, its dependence on or independence from other nations, etc.
It is a very legitimate preoccupation. But the real issue is what kind of policy
they will pursue to attain that place in the world… n
Interview by Marie Le Breton and Fouez Balit
1- Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, Free Press, 1992.
2- The title of a 1997 political essay by Samuel Huntington.
3- Report on “France and Globalisation”, commissioned by the President of France.
No.17
15
understanding
Access to energy in emerging
and developing economies
There is a new French initiative, within a European framework, to help Africa access
sustainable energy. An area where Total has been active for the past 10 years.
Energy and climate
change: global challenges
on a local scale
Governments and private companies are both helping to combat climate change.
Energies takes a look at the situation in France, talking to Virginie Schwarz, Director of
Operations for Energy, Air and Noise at France’s Environment and Energy Management
Agency (Ademe), and Manoelle Lepoutre, Executive Vice President, Sustainable
Development and Environment, who explains how Total is contributing.
F
rance’s commitments and the resources the government is devoting to combating climate change are in line with and complement the various regulations and programmes set in place at European
and global level. The first concrete step here was ratification of the ambitious Kyoto Protocol, which came into effect in 2005. Under this agreement, 38 industrialised countries and the European Union as a whole
are to reduce overall emissions of six greenhouse gases (GHG) by about
5% (based on 1990 levels) over the period 2008-2012. The Copenhagen
Climate Summit in December 2009 was a bid to negotiate complementary targets for the industrialised countries to achieve over a second
period of time, and for other countries to aim at over the longer term.
The intended result is to prevent the global temperature from rising by
more than 2°C (compared to pre-industrial temperatures) by the end of
the 21st century. Although a number of important issues were tackled in
Copenhagen no final agreement has yet been negotiated. “We need to set
rules, but to be efficient they must be global in scope, clearly spelled out
and applied gradually,” explains Manoelle Lepoutre, Total’s Executive
Vice President, Sustainable Development and Environment. “Global
because climate change affects all countries, clearly spelled out because
Total is a player in a long-term industry and we need to look ahead, and
gradual because time is needed to adapt.”
Pending agreement on a more detailed framework for the future, a
number of tools have been developed to help meet Kyoto Protocol targets. At European level, an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was set up
in 2005 to help member states of the European Union to meet their
national commitments to reduce CO2 emissions by 8% (compared to
1990) via market trading of emissions quotas allotted to the industrial
companies that generate the most CO2. The directives in the ‘energy and
climate’ package approved during 2009 extended national targets to
cover all greenhouse gases and to apply to sectors of the economy such as
transport and construction, while raising the target to an overall emissions
16
reduction of 20% (again based on 1990 levels) by 2020. These directives
also cover the composition of Europe’s energy mix. At present, renewable
energies meet only 8.5% of energy demand in the European Union; in
order to meet its share of a 20% reduction in emissions by 2010, the EU
has set binding national renewable energy targets.
From Kyoto to the Grenelle Forum
Virginie Schwarz, Director of Operations for Energy, Air and Noise at
France’s Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe), sums
up the emissions target situation for France: “Our fleet of nuclear power
stations meets 78% of France’s final electricity consumption, so to meet its
Kyoto commitments France only has to stabilise its emissions (0% compared to 1990). Going beyond the period covered by the Kyoto Protocol
—and that period is almost up—the European Union directives in the
‘energy and climate’ package take over. In France’s case, these directives
mean a 14% reduction in GHG emissions (1) (compared to 2005, and
excluding the impact of quota trading) by 2020 and a 23% share of overall
energy consumption to be met by renewable energies. On top of these
requirements come the targets that France has also set for itself, targets that
have for many years been very ambitious. Ever since the Energy Policy Bill
(POPE) passed in 2003, setting out the main thrusts of national energy
policy, French legislation in this area has been underpinned by the principle that France should reduce its GHG emissions by 75% by 2050. As far
as I know we are the first country to have written such an ambitious target
into its legislation. Lastly, France has now set up its own Grenelle Environment Forum to oversee the energy-transformation of French society”. The
Grenelle Forum, launched in July 2007, brings together the government,
private industry, non-government organisations and various representatives of civil society to discuss environmental issues. The aim is to draw
up a road map that will reconcile development with ecology and sustainability. The Forum was given legislative existence by the Grenelle Act
No.17
Climate change, poverty and access
to energy are very closely linked. Yet
energy access was the most glaring
omission from the Millennium
Development Goals drawn up by the
UN in the year 2000. But since then,
awareness has grown and there is a
consensus that an affordable, reliable
and safe source of energy is a
prerequisite to any development
initiative. This energy supply frees up
the time previously spent gathering
firewood, it reduces the number of
deaths due to the use of dangerous
sources of energy and it stimulates
income-generating businesses in the
locality. But developing nations still
have a long way to go in terms of
access to energy. Some 1.6 billion
people on Earth do not have access
to electricity and 3.2 billion people
use biomass to meet their daily
energy needs. And the poorer the
community, the more expensive
access to energy is.
France, under the aegis of the
European Union, intends to propose
an initiative called “Energising Africa;
from dream to reality”, whose main
objective is to identify concrete
projects that would benefit from
additional aid, via either existing
schemes or mechanisms yet to be set
up. The proposed programme would
be implemented in two stages:
a number of short-term initiatives
between now and 2012 and a longterm campaign to provide access to
modern energy sources for all people
living in Africa.
Total has been involved in a number of
energy-access projects in Africa over
the past decade and has now built up
considerable experience in this field.
Among those projects are the Totalgaz
initiatives in Burkina Faso and South
Africa to bring bottled LPG to poorer
communities not connected to a gas
pipeline grid and with no access to
biomass. In addition, Group
subsidiaries in Morocco and South
Africa have partnered decentralised
passed in August 2009 and a follow-up National Commitment to the
6th Environment Bill is currently before Parliament and expected to
become law during the first half of 2010. This legislation will cover the
specific measures required to achieve the 2020 targets: a 20% reduction
in GHG emissions for the transport industry, a 40% reduction in energy
consumption for the building industry, and a higher proportion of renewable energies in the national energy mix.
Tools to help meet France’s commitments
To reduce GHG emissions the government has two key tools, among others, in its toolbox. The first is Energy Economy Certificates (CEE), which
were introduced in 2005 and whose first implementation phase came to an
end in June 2009. The second is a carbon tax, whose final form has not yet
been decided. In its first phase, the CEE scheme was aimed at promoting
energy savings in the domestic and tertiary sectors. These sectors account
for more than 40% of France’s final energy consumption and generate a
quarter of the country’s overall GHG emissions. In view of this, the government now obliges all energy suppliers—companies providing electricity,
natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LPG), home-heating oil or any other
form of heat or cold—to devise ways of saving energy. Their options are to
save energy themselves or help their client companies to save energy. Or to
pay a penalty of €0.02 per kWh (cumulative and updated over the lifetime
of the product or service) short of the target. A number of French homeheating oil distributors, including Total, have formed an association called
Ecofioul and entered into partnership with home-heating equipment providers to encourage home-owners to upgrade their heating systems. Most
upgrades involve replacing the boiler itself, which usually results in energy
rural electrification projects based on
photovoltaic technology, initiatives that
bring recognised social and economic
benefits. These projects, bringing
energy to 250,000 people, have been
implemented in partnership with
France’s Agency for Development, the
World Bank and Germany’s
Development Cooperation Agency.
Today, moves are under way to
ensure the sustainability of these
initiatives, mainly by making them less
dependent on public funding. More
and more studies tend to show that
the people at the “bottom of the
pyramid” (those with incomes of
between $1 and $10 per day) could in
fact be customers for energy supply
companies. But of course they can
only become customers if the price is
right. Alongside Total’s exploration of
the possible applications for
photovoltaic solar energy this area,
the Group is also studying so-called
local-market biofuels, which are
produced and used locally as
opposed to production for export.
The study, focusing on Senegal and
Mali, will be based on small-holder
cultivation of jatropha curcas, an oilbearing plant whose seeds, once
pressed, yield a vegetable oil that can
be used either pure or in a blend to
fuel diesel generators and farm
machinery. The aim of the 5-year
study is to determine whether a
jatropha-based biofuel project would
be economically and socially viable.
The next challenge for Total
—dependingon local country
context—will be to find suitable
partners and determine which energy
supply fits the community needs.
And of course to identify sustainable
business models. The goal is, after all,
to offer access to sustainable energy
sources so as to allow sustainable
development.
Damien Desjonquères,
Societal Manager,
Total Sustainable Development
and Environment Department
savings of 20%-40% depending on the age of the boiler and the technology used. “During its first phase, between 2006 and 2009, the programme
exceeded its target of 54 TWh,”(2) says Virginie Schwarz, “and the second
phase will probably be more ambitious than this.” The second phase will
also oblige motor-fuel suppliers to meet the targets. Some years ago, Total
launched its GR Card, offering fleet operators a tool for monitoring fuel
consumption. More recently this was complemented by a tool for measuring CO2 emissions. This is just the type of service envisaged by the Energy
Savings Certificates scheme. “There are other services that could be eligible
here too, such as eco-driving training courses for truck drivers or products
that help reduce vehicle fuel consumption,” points out Virginie Schwarz.
“Total regards the targets that have been set as quite realistic,” notes Manoelle Lepoutre. “This is an opportunity to offer our customers new solutions
and to enter into new partnerships, as we did with the Ecofioul
association.”
Alongside the Energy Savings Certificates scheme, the government is
introducing a carbon tax or contribution that has the same aim: to get
people to change their behaviour. These two tools act in conjunction
with the bonus/malus scheme applied to new-car purchases, which is
adjusted to the use that is made of the vehicle. As Manoelle Lepoutre
points out, the carbon levy “means motorists will be paying more for a
tankful of fuel and that prices may increase even further.” And the impact
on industrial companies? “Any use of fiscal measures should be discussed
between all countries, because they can distort competition on the international market.”
Total has therefore been developing complementary solutions. In line
with its desire to continue to move forward, the Group has
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No.17
17
q launched a programme called Total Ecosolutions. The aim of
this broad and evolutive initiative, explains Manoelle Lepoutre, “is to
come up with products or services that will help our customers to use less
natural resources and thus reduce their own environmental footprint.” So
far, the Total Ecosolutions range includes a dozen different products or
services available in France and/or the rest of Europe. Between them,
these solutions avoid the generation of 500,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, “equivalent to the emissions generated by 150,000 cars,”
notes Manoelle Lepoutre. Among the Ecosolutions are metallocene
polyethylenes developed by Total Petrochemicals. Because of the particularly high density of these polyethylene grades, packaging film
manufacturers use a smaller quantity of granules during the production process, and the process also generates less GHG emissions.
Another Ecosolution, called Fioul Soleil, encourages heating-oil customers to switch to a solar hot-water system backed up by a condensation boiler. This combination can lead to average energy savings of
60% for hot water and 12% for space heating. Then there are Total’s
Fuel Economy lubricants for light vehicles, which reduce fuel consumption by at least 2.5%. Of course, responsibility for lowering fuel
consumption does not belong to consumers alone. The Grenelle Forum
is also looking at town planning, with a view to radically changing
urban transport patterns, with the emphasis on a shift towards means of
transport that generate much less emissions. Reducing emissions also
means greater use of renewable energies. This is an area where France’s
Grenelle Bill has set a target of 36 million tonnes of oil equivalent
(Mtoe) by 2020, compared with 16 Mtoe in 2006.
Total has been involved in photovoltaic solar energy in France since
1983, when the Group set up its Tenesol subsidiary, a 50-50 joint venture
with the electricity utility EDF. The company, based in Lyon, specialises
in the design, fabrication and management of photovoltaic solar systems.
Tenesol has two plants manufacturing solar modules, one of which, in
Toulouse in Southwest France), tripled its production capacity from
17 MWp (3) to 50 MWp in 2008. Since the company was founded, it has
installed more than a million square metres of solar panels, equipping
more than 140,000 households all over the world. Tenesol employs more
than 300 people in France. Furthermore, in line with the aims of the
Grenelle Forum, Total has begun setting up photovoltaic demonstration
projects with an educational aim at five of its industrial sites. These
projects, accounting for investment of €15 million over 2009-2010, will
involve total installed capacity of between 2 and 3 MWp.
As Manoelle Lepoutre points out, “one of the Group’s priorities is to contribute to the development of new low-carbon energies.” Among Total’s
other initiatives along these lines is a second-generation biofuels project:
with support from Ademe and in partnership with a specialist company,
Sofipreol, the Group has a 30% stake in BioTfuel, a second-generation
biodiesel pilot programme.
“Ademe and Total have also joined forces in financing and managing a
research and development programme aimed at improving the energy efficiency of industrial utilities,” adds Virginie Schwarz. “This is yet another
18
© SteEVE IUNCKER/VU
understanding
of the ways in which the aims of the Grenelle Forum can be achieved.”
Total plans to contribute €100 million over five years for programme
financing, and Ademe will provide activity subsidies of about €3 million
per year, with projects to be defined annually. Research will involve technologies that are applicable to all sectors of industry and will be of particular benefit to SMEs. The programme will also allow Total to boost
more rapidly the energy efficiency of its own sites and also contractors’
sites. As Manoelle Lepoutre points out: “In 2008, emissions generated by
Total-operated sites in France came to 16.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. That was 3.2% of all emissions generated by France. The main source
for us was our refineries, followed by our petrochemicals plants.” To reduce
these emissions, the top priority is to improve plant energy efficiency.
“Over the last ten years, world-wide, the specific emissions (direct emissions
related to the processing of crude oil) generated by our fleet of refineries
have been reduced by 17%. Furthermore, we estimate that our refining
branch can make a further yearly gain in energy efficiency of 1% between
now and 2012.”
The target set for the petrochemicals branch is 2% per year over 20102012. Investments already made in this area in France include the modernisation of the styrene production plant at Gonfreville, near Le Havre.
“But to reduce emissions further than this we will have to turn to CO2 capture and storage (CCS) technologies,” adds Manoelle Lepoutre. In the long
term, these technologies could be applied to between 20% and 40% of
world CO2 emissions. The industrial-scale CCS pilot plant, which was
launched in 2007 and started up recently, symbolises Total’s commitment
here. The aims of the project, which covers the whole production-to-storage chain, are multiple: to improve knowledge of oxy-combustion techniques, to optimise energy efficiency, to reduce capture costs, to determine
a methodology that can be transposed to other industrial plants, to develop
appropriate storage-monitoring tools and to provide the authorities with
the elements they need to draw up the most appropriate regulatory
framework.
“As an industrial group that both consumes and supplies energies that are a
sources of GHG, we assume our responsibility to help combat global warming. We must also reconcile this responsibility with our primary mission,
which is to supply energy. Looking ahead to 2030 we are going to need all
available forms of energy if we are to satisfy demand, but fossil fuels will still
meet 75% of primary energy demand,” notes Manoelle Lepoutre. The flaring of gas associated with the production of oil currently accounts for 28%
of all the Group’s GHG emissions. Total has set itself the target of reducing
flare emissions by 50% between 2005 and 2014. n
Marie Le Breton and Jean-Jacques Cornaert
1- Not taking into account market quotas.
2- 1 teraWatt = 1012 Watts.
3- MWp is the measure of power of a photovoltaic installation per time unit.
No.17
paris, France.
The CSTJF, cornerstone
of Total’s R&D in E&P
understanding
ENLIGHTenMENT ON RESEARCH
“The empires of the future will be empires of the mind”, prophesied Winston Churchill.
The drive for scientific excellence, visible in the strong rivalry between leading
universities worldwide, confirms that we are now living in a world where knowledge
is a strategic asset. How does French research measure up? Jean-François Minster,
Senior Vice President, Scientific Development, Total, outlines the various thrusts of French
research and explains how Total is contributing to scientific knowledge.
Many people are saying that France is in scientific decline, particularly in view of the academic rankings of world universities drawn
up by researchers at the Jiao-Tong University in Shanghai. Is France
still a major player in world research?
Jean-François Minster: France is still unquestionably a major scientific
power. We boast excellent research teams in a number of disciplines, ranging
from mathematics to the neurosciences, as well as in other fields where Total
is involved more closely: structural geology, spatial oceanography, large-scale
geophysics… Our foreign partners are very aware of this. We shouldn’t be too
worried by the University of Shanghai rankings. Even the chancellor of that
university, whom I have met, points out that the ranking system was designed
to help Chinese students select a university for later study; it was never JiaoTong’s intention to establish an absolute hierarchy. And there are all sorts of
other criteria that can be taken into account if you want to gauge a country’s
scientific importance. If you count Nobel laureates for instance, France ranks
third in the world, and French scientists have won a number of Nobel prizes
in very recent years. This being said, we must not shut our ears to criticism,
and I think we should interpret the Shanghai rankings as a sign that there are
areas for improvement. But let me emphasise that if two-thirds of Total’s
research partnerships involve scientific laboratories here in France, it is not
because we are nationalistic or because we are looking for cultural affinities,
it is above all because France boasts excellent research laboratories.
Don’t you think the way France’s research effort is organised, and
dominated by large research bodies, is sometimes too rigid?
J.-F. M.: It is true that, for historical reasons, the major research institutes
—CNRS, BRGM, Ifremer(1), etc.—have a great deal of influence in France.
In fact they account for about 50% of the country’s research potential. But that
doesn’t mean we should exaggerate the importance of this particularity: the
situation in Europe varies greatly from country to country but that same figure for the whole of Europe is about 40%. And even in the United States there
are major publicly-funded research bodies like the NOAA, which studies the
atmosphere and the ocean, and the USGS, focusing on the Earth sciences.
My colleagues in other countries have often confided to me that the way we
have organised our research gives France structural advantages. When I was
20
with Ifremer, other research bodies envied the fact that our institute had the
means to do both fundamental and applied research and to manage our own
infrastructures. In the same way, the ability of France’s CNRS to carry out
difficult, long-term research programmes is often seen as a strength when the
CNRS is compared with organisations based on programmes of limited
duration. The downside of the way France organises its research—which is
sometimes too rigid and segmented—is the risk that research will not be
very responsive. There was a need to find a good balance between stable
structures and funding by project, and the government acted to meet that
need in January 2007 by setting up the National Research Agency (ANR),
whose role is to provide funding for projects considered to be both scientifically and economically useful.
Isn’t France’s publicly-funded research rather cut off from the
research carried out by industry?
J.-F. M.: I think that is going a bit far. Indeed there are a lot of researchers
whose careers have proved the contrary, starting with me: I have been a
research director at the CNRS, chairman and CEO of Ifremer and now Scientific Director at Total. But it is true that publicly-funded research is rather
too often focused on technologies for 2050 or 2060 while every captain of
industry knows that we should look at technologies for 2020 as well.
Basically, the challenge is clear-cut. We must speed up technological evolution within French industry. At Total, for example, we are going to need
nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, advanced calculating capacity, new
characterisation instruments, and so on. Whenever I see a new technological development I ask myself whether it could be useful to us, and to tell the
truth the answer is almost always yes. So we don’t only need to know how to
choose, we also need to be able to move quickly to incorporate the technology we have chosen. And that nearly always means working in partnership
because we are, almost by definition, talking about emerging technologies so
we won’t already have the necessary competencies in-house.
To keep pace with technological change it is important to multiply the
interfaces between different research players—universities, research institutes, large business groups, SMEs and start-ups too. Here too, there are
signs that we are on the right track, with a government policy encouraging
No.17
public-private partnerships and a move to set up more competitive groupings called Research & Higher Education Poles (PRES), both of which are
well suited to the needs of modern research.
There are those in France who criticise industrial groups for not
pulling their weight and for letting the public purse bear most of the
financial burden of research.
J.-F. M.: That criticism is unjust. It is generally agreed that the best funding
mix for research is when private enterprise spends twice as much as public
bodies. Or at least that is what is written into the European Council strategy
adopted in Lisbon. It is also reality in countries such as Sweden and the
United States. Admittedly, France does not confirm to this now almost
“golden” rule of providing 2/3 of research funding, as our ratio is close to
50-50. But when you look at the research budgets of France’s large industrial
groups —such as in the energy sector, where we have Total but also Areva,
GDF Suez, EDF and major service companies like Technip (the world
leader in offshore technology)—you see that the private sector well and truly
obeys the “golden rule”, despite the fact that there is ample public funding for
energy research too. So in overall terms, France achieves its ratio only thanks
to the large industrial groups: for historical reasons France has relatively few
of the larger SMEs with more than a thousand employees that are so numerous in Germany, companies that have attained the critical mass necessary to
do research on their own.
Furthermore, France has relatively few companies active in the business segments (such as micro-electronics and pharmaceuticals) that have traditionally been innovation-intensive, where firms often devote 15% and even 20%
of their turnover to research and development. Of course we do have Thales
and Sanofi, which are right up with their foreign competitors in terms of
research funding, but we don’t have many others. So the research-funding
mix is really a matter of overall industrial fabric.
What role should public policy play in helping France to remedy this
situation and to allow us to develop technologies for the future?
J.-F. M.: During the 21st century we will have to face a series of techno-
logical challenges. We will need to devise a new energy mix, we will have
to cope with dwindling resources—by resources I also mean water, agricultural land and biodiversity, all undoubtedly more of a brake on development than energy is—and we face a variety of problematics revolving
around sustainability. That’s the single biggest challenge facing humankind. Faced with this situation, political leaders are going to have to execute a triple-play comprising support for innovation, support for industrial
development and support for markets. That is the only way promising new
technologies will find their way right to the end-user. Moreover, in the
past France has managed to implement this strategy and has seen emerge
large business groups that were both competitive and innovative, particularly in the energy sector. So, for example, if the government wants to
speed up the development of renewable energies it must assist innovative
start-ups, support the SMEs that will bring the technologies to the industrial stage, encourage the market by guaranteeing consumer prices, and
The main mission of the CSTJF is
to ensure that the Group has the
cutting-edge R&D programmes and
technologies it needs to unlock
reserves that are increasingly difficult
to access and hydrocarbons that are
increasingly complex to develop.
The Jean Féger Scientific and Technical Centre (CSTJF), located in Pau
in southern France, employs 1,850 people of 35 different nationalities
on a 27-hectare site boasting experimental facilities that make it an almost
unique research tool in the industry. At Pau we have a ‘number-crunching’
capacity of 450 teraflops (450 trillion operations per second) and which
should soon reach 1,000 teraflops. We are in 24x7 contact with
1,250 Total worksites and subsidiaries (including other research centres)
thanks to the Group’s own worldwide high-speed communications
network. And we have top-flight international experts in numerous fields.
This cross-discipline mix is a key asset: the presence on the same
‘campus’ of many specialised disciplines related to explorationproduction (E&P) allows us to capture valuable synergies and also to
benefit from the ‘big picture’ in tackling problems. A good example here
is EOR, or enhanced oil recovery, which is a major strategic challenge.
Enhanced recovery involves the injection of various fluids into oil
reservoirs to ‘sweep’ less accessible oil towards the producer wells, thus
enhancing the recovery rate. The importance of this technology can be
seen in the fact that if we can increase the recovery rate by just 5% (today
an average of 32% of resources are produced) it will be equivalent
to discovering an additional 300 billion barrels worldwide! But if we are
to increase the recovery rate we must be able to choose the technology
(do we inject polymers, tensio-active substances, gas, treated seawater
or simply heat?) that is best suited to the characteristics of the relevant
oilfield. We must also be able to estimate the amount of additional oil that
EOR will unlock. All this requires cutting-edge competencies in physics
and chemistry as well as a whole range of disciplines needed for reservoir
modelling. And in some cases we may need to set up a pilot scheme
to test the technique and understand the global architecture involved.
This multiple-stage process is now being applied on the giant offshore
Dalia field, which came into production in 2006. A first phase, involving
only part of the field, is now under way and we hope to be implementing
EOR on the whole Dalia field by 2014. But enhanced oil recovery is just
one example. Naturally, our teams at the CSTJF are working on the whole
range of challenges involved in the strategic choices made by Total:
deep-offshore resources, deeply-buried reservoirs (i.e. high-pressure,
high-temperature), heavy and extra-heavy crudes, multiphase pumping,
complex wells, sour gases, capture and storage of CO2, etc. All these are
exciting technological challenges, and the solutions will all help the
industry to achieve its common objective of pushing back further and
further the final frontiers of oil.
Michel Hourcard, Senior Vice President Development and Operations
Techniques, and Senior Vice President for the Scientific and Technical Center
in Pau, Total, and Bernard Seiller, Vice President Research &
Development of Strategy Business Development Engineering R&D, E&P, Total
also use regulatory incentives such as the obligation to reach a specified
percentage of green energies in the energy mix, and so on. But we need to
keep the big picture in mind, planning strategy well upstream so as to
avoid negative distortions such as windfall effects. Our German neighbours have often proved more adept than us at applying this sort of
approach in a manner that is coherent overall.
q
No.17
21
understanding
Luxor, Egypt.
q And what about Total, which is France’s largest company in
terms of share capital. How much importance does the Group give
to research?
J.-F. M.: To give you some idea of the importance of our research effort, in
competitors. Those are two extremes, but there is a wide variety of scenarios
possible between them, including support for start-ups. When looking at
research partnerships we try to be both pragmatic and imaginative.
being carried out within a framework of consultation and dialogue with local
elected officials, the relevant regulatory bodies, community associations, scientists, etc. Learning to do all that involved quite a lot of research too!
2008 the Group’s research budget (including development pilots) came to
E650 million, and research spending for 2009 will exceed E700 million. In all,
we have 4,200 people all over the world engaged in research. Since 2004,
Total’s research expenditure has grown by more than 7% a year and this trend
will continue at least until 2014. The Group operates 22 research centres
worldwide and we currently have about 600 research contracts with partners
in countries ranging from the United States and China to Belgium and Norway, not forgetting France of course.
And no outline of Total’s research activities would be complete without mentioning that they can take very different forms. Needless to say, in all areas that
we consider to be strategic, we do our own research. I’m talking about themes
like seismic data processing for exploration, or development of the polymerisation catalysts we use in petrochemicals. On the other hand there are subjects like the sociology of risk or economic modelling of the energy future
where there’s no reason to do in-house research. For those we enter into partnerships with public research bodies and sometimes we even work with our
Could you outline some of Total’s most noteworthy research
successes?
J.-F. M.: The Group’s research can be divided into four main areas, and we
How does Total’s research activity benefit France as a whole?
J.-F. M.: Seven of Total’s 22 research centres are located in France. Most
United Arab Emirates.
© Stéphane Remael/M.Y.O.P.
22
No.17
© René MATTES/hemis.fr
Which are the areas where we can expect to achieve major technological breakthroughs in the foreseeable future?
J.-F. M.: First of all we shouldn’t forget that major technological change
can sometimes be brought about not by a breakthrough but simply by
the gradual lowering of the cost of a process, due to the learning curve.
This lowering can be caused by economies of scale, by the cumulative
effect of small improvements over time, by the payback of development
costs, etc. But of course change can also result from real technological
breakthroughs. But however it happens, we can be sure that some of the
products that currently seem “stuck” at the laboratory stage will one day
be out there conquering the market. One likely candidate for such a
success story is chemical looping combustion, which is a way to reduce
the energy input needed for CO2 capture by using metal oxides to provide additional oxygen for industrial combustion. Another example, in
quite a different domain, is energy efficiency in the chemicals industry.
Until now the key paradigm here was to increase the size of the reactors.
But in reality, the larger the reactor the harder it is to control the reaction, so it may well be that by working in the opposite direction—via
research into microfluidics—we will be able to optimise reactions
q
paris, France.
© René MATTES/hemis.fr
Abu dhabi,
can boast notable achievements in all four of them. Firstly we do research in
exploration-production. That is indispensable, because humankind will not
be in a position to do without oil for several decades, which means we have to
keep discovering new fields and also be able to bring them into production.
This is an area where Total is a leading player, mainly thanks to our excellent
geologists and seismologists. Very early on, the Group took the risk of devoting a lot of effort to the development of deep-offshore oil and gas deposits, and
we are now a leading player in this field, with a solid reputation.
The second field is processing, by which I mean everything involved in transforming natural resources (anything from crude oil to biomass…) into usable
forms of energy. This is a field where Total is now gaining about 1.5% in
energy conversion efficiency every year, which is a very good improvement
rate and invaluable from a sustainability viewpoint.
Thirdly, we do a lot of research on refined products. Total’s lubricants are
among the best on the market. In 2008 we received an award from the United
States Environmental Protection Agency for an innovative 100% plant-based
resin developed by the Group company Cook Composites and Polymers and
another award in France for a carpet adhesive called Silentstik® developed by
Bostik, which doubles as sound insulation for floors. The Group’s rubberprocessing subsidiary Hutchinson has developed top expertise in shape calculation and the rheology of industrial components, particularly automotive
parts. Furthermore, a third of the research projects undertaken by our metalplating subsidiary Atotech involve products and processes that deliver significant reductions (up to 90% in fact) in atmospheric emissions.
The fourth theme is eco-toxicology. We are devoting more and more
resources to the protection of the environment—reducing the Group’s own
atmospheric emissions, using less water and minimising discharge—and
our Lacq site in southern France is probably one of Europe’s leading ecotoxicology laboratories, complete with an artificial river that allows us to
test our own new products.
And while on the subject of the environment, I really should mention our
CO2 capture and storage (CCS) pilot site, also at Lacq. The CCS process
involves capture of the CO2 generated by various industrial processes and its
injection into deep geological layers (in this case several depleted natural gas
reservoirs). This is a technology whose strong potential for reducing humanrelated emissions has been recognised by the Inter-Governmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC). With this industrial pilot, a world first in several
ways, Total is acquiring invaluable know-how. We have converted an existing
boiler to oxycombustion (a technology that makes it easier to capture the
CO2), we have studied both pipeline transport and injection of CO2, and we
have developed new tools—involving micro-seismic acquisition and reservoir
modelling—for monitoring CO2 storage over time. In addition, this project is
of the Group’s technological know-how and research resources in the field
of hydrocarbons are brought together at our Scientific and Technical Centre
(CSTJF) in the southern city of Pau (see box page 21). Then there’s the
Gonfreville Research laboratory in Normandy specialising in refining, the
Solaize research centre near Lyon which concentrates on finished products (motor fuels, lubricants, etc.), combustion studies and environmental
modelling, and Hutchinson’s research centre located at Montargis. In all,
more than half the Group’s research personnel work here in France. And
as I mentioned earlier, two thirds of our research contracts are with partners in France too. We work in conjunction with universities in Strasbourg,
Bordeaux, Toulouse, Pau, Orsay (outside Paris) and Rennes as well as
numerous graduate schools (Centrale, Polytechnique, Mines, EnsiCaen,
USTL, ENSCM, etc.) and major research bodies such as the CNRS, Ifremer,
BRGM, Ineris and IFP. All these partnerships, including those with the
IFP—undoubtedly the organisation whose focus is closest to Total’s core
business—have been set up so as to respect the independence of all parties.
For us this is extremely desirable because it’s in our interest to team up
with professionals who are already in contact with other energy groups,
even if the latter are our competitors. In order to have new ideas and do
quality research you need to cultivate openness. One last thing: Total is
also funding a Chair of Sustainable Development at the Collège de France.
So as you see, the Group works in partnership with the whole spectrum of
the French scientific community.
understanding
q by having better control over catalysis, temperature, etc. It is possible to imagine that within a few decades we will see chemicals plants
partially made up of a series of micro-reactors assembled into large-scale
production units. And in a similar scenario, we now have nanotechnologies that can encapsulate medicines and deliver them to the exact point
within an organism where they are needed (a tumour, for example), so
why shouldn’t we imagine delivering a substance to a specific point in
an oil reservoir so that it can “help” the oil flow out of the rock? There
will probably also be breakthroughs in photovoltaic technology. We
have already developed new-generation organic solar cells (see box
below) and we can now expect costs to gradually decrease while both
energy conversion efficiency and working life increase, so in the end
they will become everyday products.
“French-style enterprise
means being fully
part of globalisation”
All this is why, whenever I get the chance to address new Total recruits, for
example, I tell them that we should see globalisation and the depletion of
our natural resources not as abstract threats but as challenges they will
have to meet during their working lives. We at Total are constantly working
on forecasts for as far ahead as 2050. That time frame is roughly the working life of the young people we recruit today. n
Interviewed by Yves d’Esny
In today’s difficult economic context the President of the French Employers’ Federation
(Medef), Laurence Parisot, outlines her vision of what a private company should be.
She feels that the French have a genius for business and innovation that needs to be set
free from heavy fiscal constraints before it can express itself fully.
1- CNRS: Centre national de la recherche scientifique (National Centre of Scientific
Research); BRGM: Bureau de recherche géologiques et minières (Geological and
Mining Research Bureau); Ifremer (Institut français de recherche pour l’exploitation
de la mer (French institute for exploitation of the sea).
Konarka, looking for a place in the sun
This year’s Medef University took as its theme “Looking forwards to a
new future”, emphasising the business community’s “collective
responsibility for remodelling, redesigning, finding and if necessary
inventing another way”. A number of visions were expressed during
the seminar. Which did you find most promising?
Laurence Parisot: The University was a great success, largely thanks to a
Total is the main shareholder in an American start-up company specialising
in organic photovoltaic technology. One of the firm’s co-founders is Alan Heeger,
who has won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
24
related to thin film cells
—photovoltaic cells whose layer of
active material (silicon or metal
oxide) is less than 10 microns thick.
In addition to our research on thin
film cells, we have now started
exploring an even more innovative
approach. In late 2008 Total
became a partner in an American
start-up firm called Konarka,
based in Lowell, near Boston
Massachusetts. Konarka is
focusing on an original technology
(sometimes referred to as
“third-generation” cell technology)
designed to produce electricity
using semi-conductor polymers.
With this original solution, nearly
90% of all the materials used in the
solar cells could theoretically be
produced by Total. This
rapprochement is allowing Total to
capture R&D synergies between
our specialty-chemicals
subsidiaries: Hutchinson, Bostik,
Atotech, Cray Valley and Sartomer.
Synergies that are all the more
promising because of the
impressive scientific potential of
Konarka: in 2000 one of the firm’s
co-founders, Alan Heeger, was
awarded the Nobel Prize for
Chemistry following his discovery
and development of polymer
conductors.
Konarka is much more than just a
research laboratory: the company is
today the leading player in organic
photovoltaics and is in the process
of industrialising its technology.
Thanks to this new technology
—rather like the process used in
argentic (silver compound-based)
photography—the firm can leverage
existing industrial sites with only
minor modifications being
necessary. Konarka has already
acquired—for 50 times less than the
cost of a new plant—a factory with
a potential production capacity
of nearly 1 gigawatt peak (GWp).
That is equivalent to the current
production of the leading world
player in either of the two so-called
“conventional” technologies,
crystalline and thin-film silicon.
No.17
For the time being, production
volumes are quite modest and the
technical challenges quite daunting.
As the final product will have only a
short working life of between three
and five years, Konarka is focusing
on consumer applications such as
battery chargers for low-power
equipment (telephones, laptops,
etc.) and outside applications (solar
tents and awnings, etc.). The key
challenge in coming years will be to
increase significantly the working
life and power conversion rate
of these products while also
optimising the industrial process.
Mission impossible? Only time will
tell. But this is exactly the kind of
challenge researchers will have to
rise to, and by 2050 solar energy
could be meeting 10% of the
world’s electricity needs.
Marc Fischer, Strategy and
Development of Solar Activity, Total,
and Marc Vermeersch, Head
of R&D Department Solar & New
Energies, Gas & Power, Total
splendid team spirit. And it was a success that will impact all those with whom
we have ties, those who share our faith in free enterprise and want to valorize
it. The main themes covered during our four half-day sessions were quite
Colchagua Valley,
Chile.
© franco Barbagallo/hemis.fr
Each year, our Earth receives from
the Sun several thousand times
as much energy as humankind
consumes. So learning how to
capture and use solar energy will be
one of the major challenges of the
21st century. As an energy supplier,
Total is taking an active part in this
technological adventure. Indeed,
the Group has been involved in
photovoltaic energy for 25 years
now and our two subsidiaries,
Tenesol and Photovoltech are key
players in promoting crystalline
silicon technology, which has now
been extensively industrialised,
with more than 85% of the market.
However, tomorrow’s photovoltaic
technology will be quite different
from what we know today. The
whole photovoltaic industry is
mounting an intense and diversified
research effort and new
generations of solar cells are taking
shape in a multitude of laboratories.
Total is part of this wide-ranging
R&D effort, conducting research
into several emerging technologies
original. I think it was a really good idea to open the workshop with a session
on children (it was the first day of the school year) and to end it with a hymn to
freedom—particularly the freedom of enterprise—and to a spirit of responsibility. The two moments that marked me most were the ode to freedom expressed
by Clara Rojas, who was for so long a hostage of the FARC, and the address by
Lech Walesa, former president of Poland, who stirred us all with his vibrant
message of hope that we could lead the world towards true development.
On the subject of development, we know that globalisation is here to
stay, but the prospect of a global form of governance to match it still
seems some way off. What does that imply for today’s companies?
L. P.: We have already made quite a lot of progress towards global governance.
A consensus has emerged, and the G20 has become an institution whose
agreements will be regarded as a reference. Our progress in this direction
means we will be better protected against some of the risks inherent in crises.
Risks such as protectionism, which can sometimes re-surface in different disguises. One example here is the aggressive exchange-rate policies pursued by
some countries.
There’s no point in wondering whether globalisation is good or bad. It’s here
and we absolutely must rise to the challenges of today’s world. A world which,
for business, means a long period of exceptional growth. And that in turn
means gigantic needs, gigantic impacts on markets, and gigantic capacities.
There are two ways in which we can react to this reality. We can withdraw into
ourselves and pursue a policy of protectionism, or we can adopt an economic
policy based on competitiveness and attractiveness. This second policy will
ensure that we can sell our products and services both in France and abroad.
Globalisation has created more jobs in France than it has destroyed. If we don’t
play the globalisation game, we risk isolating ourselves and getting poorer.
Before the Pittsburgh summit, the Medef and the employers’ federations of
business in the other G8 countries got together and addressed an open letter to
the G20 meeting stressing the necessity to “think in terms of common
q
25
understanding
Bamboo: aesthetic
and anti-pollution
Tokyo
Paris
New
York
© Bertrand GARDEL/hemis.fr, LUDOVIC/REA, Bruno PEROUSSE/hemis.fr
and to announce their “total desire to reach conclusions” at the Doha
trade talks and the Copenhagen global warming summit. Moreover, French
business leaders are paying particularly close attention to the discussions on
technology transfers. In matters of intellectual property, we must stick to our
key principles because this is one of the pillars of France’s innovation and
competitiveness.
q
Yet there has been something of a decline in the competitiveness of
French companies, including in their own market. Why is this? And
what are the priority areas for action here?
L. P.: What strikes me when I examine the situation of French businesses in
general is just how much companies’ situations can vary. Here in France, a
small number of very big companies really stand out. Despite the crisis, a small
minority of French companies are posting excellent results while a lot of others
are being stifled by the excessive burden of taxes and social charges. That
doesn’t mean that these struggling businesses lack potential. If you look at their
products, services, technologies and human resources you find extremely
strong potential. It just cannot be realised to the full. To rectify this, the Medef
advocates future-oriented investments—as part of the recently announced
State Loan, for example—with particular emphasis on training, on the development of a European system for encouraging innovation, and the harmonisation of Europe’s legal provisions in these matters.
The current economic crisis, an increase in protectionism and a strong
euro are making things more difficult for business. In this context,
what options are available to French companies?
L. P.: Today, the greatest risk to economic stability lies in currency movements.
The collapse of the dollar against the euro is a much more serious threat than
the resumption of bonus payments in the United States. The crisis has shown
up the shortcomings in some regulatory frameworks, particularly in the financial sector. And above all the absence of an international regulatory framework, while the economy is more globalised than ever. But we must tread
carefully. There have been almost unanimous calls for common “rules of the
game” but there has been hardly a voice raised in defence of innovation. We
don’t want this “new order” to end up stifling creativity and sapping the vital
energy of our economy. I think the very idea of progress is now under threat.
We must say no to anything that smacks of protectionism and refuse all temptation to tax—and thereby weaken—the productive energy of our country.
Cosmetics made from grapes to stay young and beautiful, that’s Caudalie’s motto,
and the company’s range of natural and effective skin-care products is attracting
an increasing number of women worldwide. Despite its modest size, this SME
founded 15 years ago is now one of the leading skin-care companies in France.
firm of Caudalie was launched in 1995
and was soon producing three skincare products that were distributed via
a select circuit: pharmacies and
parapharmacies, and later perfumeries
and department stores. With two new
formulae patented in 1999 and then
2004, the research team was soon the
mainstay of this SME. The first patent
was for Resvératrol, an immune
defence substance in vines that also
combats wrinkles and loss of skin
tone. The second was for Viniférine,
a substance derived from the “tears”
of the vine—the sap that flows each
springtime—which is prized for its
ability to make facial skin glow.
Caudalie, which has posted doubledigit annual growth ever since it was
founded, now markets its products in
just been put in place is an important step towards boosting the competitivity
of the French economy. Companies will continue to pay around three-quarters of the former business turnover tax, but the trend of regularly increasing
other taxes that adversely affect production costs must be reversed. But this
overall reduction in local taxes is only a first step to improving the competitivity of companies. First, the tax, which may still represent 3% of company
added value, is still much higher than that paid in other countries. Secondly,
the reform is very complex and presents a number of problems that must be
resolved quickly, particularly for SMEs. Finally, the reform has meant that
tens of thousands of companies are no longer profitable because of tax
increases that are often very high. Medef has continually highlighted these
problems and proposed appropriate alternatives. Actions such as these are
essential to ensure that the reform of the business turnover tax benefits all
French companies.
Is French-style entrepreneurship specific to France? And if so, how
does it fit in with globalisation?
L. P.: French-style enterprise has always meant “being fully part of globalisa-
Skin care from the vine
1993 was a good year for Bordeaux.
It was also the year that the idea of
Caudalie was born of the meeting
between Professor Vercauteren and
two young entrepreneurs. It all began
next to a heap of grape pips at the
Château Smith Haut-Lafitte vineyard.
Professor Vercauteren, who was
visiting the vineyard, got to talking with
his hosts, winemakers Mathilde and
Bertrand Thomas, and told them
about the extraordinary ability of the
polyphenols in grape pips to combat
the free radicals that are the main
cause of human skin ageing. This
meeting in the vineyard was later to
bear valuable fruit. The first obstacle,
overcome the following year, was to
stabilise the grape polyphenols. Once
the process had been patented, the
France has one of the highest tax and social security contribution
rates in the world. And the margin available to French companies is
ten percentage points lower than that enjoyed by their German counterparts. How can the state help French companies to become more
competitive?
L. P.: The reform of the business turnover tax (taxe professionnelle) that has
a growing number of countries. Today,
the export market accounts for 35% of
the company’s turnover, and Caudalie
has just set up its 11th subsidiary, in
Greece. The firm now wants to
strengthen its presence in the Asian
market, and Total has been giving the
SME a helping hand by providing
office facilities in Singapore and Hong
Kong for two young VIE (1) marketing
graduates. “They are our scouting
party. Thanks to them we have been
able to build brand recognition in Asia
and ensure future growth”, says
Caudalie Human Resources Manager
Iwann Le Du. In addition to its range
of “cosm’ethic” products, as Iwann
Le Du likes to call them—because their
active principles are natural and they
contain no parabens—Caudalie has
now branched out into another market
by setting up “vinotherapy” centres.
At the first Vinotherapy Spa, opened at
Caudalie’s birthplace, the Château
Smith Haut-Lafitte vineyard, clients
can now enjoy a cabernet body scrub,
a merlot pack and a cask bath. The
idea was a huge success, leading
Mathilde and Bertrand Thomas to set
up further Vinotherapy Spas in other
top winemaking regions (Rioja in
Spain, Piedmont in Italy, etc.) and in
luxury hotels such as the New York
Plaza, where a new Spa opened
recently. The secret of Caudalie’s
resounding success? Natural beauty.
Fouez Balit
1- VIE is a form of national civic service
for volunteers.
tion”. Our trade with other countries didn’t start yesterday, and French products have always been known outside France. The way I see it, French-style
business means accepting that you can have a dream, believing in that dream,
wanting to share that dream, having the courage to pursue it, posting “unbelievable” technical achievements and convincing those who don’t believe it
can be done. That’s what I mean by French business genius: a very special
combination of aesthetics and entrepreneurial spirit, the ability to create
something special, our way of transforming forever our vision of the world
and the way we see other countries. Businessmen tell me about cases where
an acquisition has brought input of Anglo-Saxon business culture into a
French group, often in terms of process and stability. But when a business is
in trouble, encounters an unexpected problem or faces a new challenge,
French employees have no equal for rapid and effective response!
In today’s world, French business genius is especially visible in the splendid
advances we have made in collective services and in cutting-edge industrial
technology. We have developed the best water management in the world, and
our investments have made us the front-runners in nuclear power. Indeed our
whole economy is oriented towards sustainable development.
The “green market” is often cited as a growth vector for the economies of the developed world. Do you agree with this? Are French
companies going to benefit from this? And will the carbon tax promote “green growth”?
L. P.: First and foremost, green growth is still growth. It has advantages but it
also involves costs. I agree that it is indispensable, but it can be a good thing
26
No.17
Phytorem, an SME supported by
Total, has developed a technique
known as phyto-remediation which
is used with bamboo, a plant whose
depolluting qualities can help
in the treatment of water.
The plant world still holds plenty of secrets. An increasing number of
business sectors are learning to exploit the properties of plants, and
during the last few decades this trend has given rise to several new
professions, such as “anti-pollution farmer”. Developed in the early 70s,
the technique known as phyto-remediation uses the natural properties of
plants to contain or degrade polluting organic compounds in soil or water.
For some time the technique failed to really catch on because only a few
plants (trees like willow, poplar and eucalyptus) would “work”, but its
effectiveness was vastly increased thanks to a species of giant bamboo
tried out with success by Bernard Benayoun on France’s La Réunion
island. The combination of his knowledge and the expertise of Véronique
Arfi, an agronomist who specialised in phyto-remediation in the United
States, led to the formation of a company called Phytorem. As it turned
out, bamboo could work miracles. “The plant’s dense root system allows
it to survive situations of hydro-stress and to absorb huge quantities of
water when it is available. It can digest a wide range of substances
(nitrogen, phosphorous, hydrocarbons, heavy metals) and can adapt to a
variety of soil conditions and climates. And being bamboo, it shoots
immediately and grows rapidly,” explains Bernard Benayoun. So success
came quickly to this SME set up in 2002. Particularly as in 2007 the
company was given a €40,000 interest-free loan by Total as part of its
policy of support for smaller businesses. “This support from the Group
allowed us to create two new jobs at a time when our company started
growing fast,” adds Bernard Benayoun. Phytorem’s patented BambouAssainissement® technology is now being used by an increasing number
of local authorities. And for good reasons… “Our sewage/water treatment
facilities leave no mud behind and have the advantage of being more
aesthetic than conventional plants.” Indeed, the bamboo-grove plants
look rather like botanical gardens and enhance the landscape rather than
polluting it. Another advantage of this technology is low maintenance
costs, as the bamboo plants regenerate themselves and adapt to
changes in the sewage-farm zone. The only real maintenance required is
yearly pruning, and the produce of these cut-backs can be valorized as
wood (fuel, construction, decoration), meaning that the entire process
is right in line with sustainable development.
Phytorem, which was set up in the Provencal town of Miramas, today
markets its technology throughout France, employs 25 people and has
just opened its capital to outside investors with a view to achieving
growth through export. “We aim to build strong export sales within
five years.” The first markets in the SME’s sights are the rest of Europe
and then South America.
Fouez Balit
or a bad thing depending on how we drive it and how we quantify it in figures.
The carbon intensity of French business is one of the lowest among the developed economies. And as a result, France is one of the few European countries
to have actually reduced its emissions in absolute terms. Our successful
“energy mix” is also the fruit of the efforts made by our large groups in the
energy sector. But France and Europe cannot do very much on their own.
And neither should they be penalised in competitiveness because companies
in other countries have not been able to meet their commitments.
q
No.17
27
understanding
France, hub of Total’s international scope
What is the relationship between Total and its country of origin,
its home, and with countries abroad? Jean-Jacques Guilbaud,
Chief Administrative Officer of Total, provides some of the answers.
On the subject of an eco-tax, the Medef has come out in favour of this
but we have always said that eco-taxes will only be effective if they induce
people or companies to change their behaviour without aiming to increase
state revenue. From this perspective it is interesting to set the future carbon
tax against France’s business tax: they don’t have the same rationale or the
same aim or the same effect on all companies.
q
Knowledge, innovation and technology are major economic assets
when you are trying to be competitive. How can we develop these
strengths and ensure that they drive growth and employment?
L. P.: In fact, the question we should be asking ourselves is “Do we want to
remain a rich country, and are we able to?” In order to stay rich we need to
devise a sound growth strategy. By that I mean put together a clearly
defined French commercial offer. Not one that is contaminated by a policy
of demand or by some vague policy of supply. There is an urgent need to
invest in areas that can modernise and renew what we have to offer; and
that means research, innovation, high technology and knowledge. French
companies must be able to offer the world market products that are both
new and top quality. The Juppé-Rocard report(1) on the proposed State
Loan advocates this investment focus and it reiterates several ideas suggested by the Medef.
Innovation is fundamental to success. No company can remain viable
without permanently reinventing itself through innovation. But you can
only develop a veritable innovation dynamic in an entrepreneurial environment that is both open and supported by the market. For example, the
Medef is constantly promoting initiatives in favour of SMEs, which
account for a large number of scientific jobs. We have also worked hard to
paris,
France.
get the London Agreement ratified, a move that will sharply reduce the
cost of taking out European patents and make them more accessible, particularly to SMEs, by simplifying the translation requirements. Today we
are pressing for a harmonized European judicial system that will do away
with the barriers to the circulation of innovation. The Medef is also participating very closely in devising the National Strategy on Research and
Innovation (SNRI) and we have managed to get agreement on a significant increase in tax credits for research costs.
Large companies are often leaders in the field of social innovation,
but SMEs have been lagging behind. Do you think big companies
might have a new role to play here, and how do you think they
could help?
L. P.: There have been a number of declarations of intent along theses lines,
and we at Medef are moving to encourage this kind of solidarity between
large companies and SMEs. We have set up a working group on this and I
made sure that heads of SMEs and the CEOs of large groups were both
represented. We must strive to develop a more sustainable relationship
between all of them, one based on a reciprocal commitment and not just
one-way aid. This isn’t easy: the SMEs are dependent on their larger cousins and so are often negotiating from a position of weakness.
One way in which large companies could help here is by providing HR
know-how and incentives. For example, a company might grant favourable
terms to a sub-contractor or supplier that agrees to adopt certain HR tools
aimed at improving the working conditions of its employees. Any arrangement like this that allows SMEs to gain HR know-how they do not possess
internally, and to acquire it more cheaply, should help these companies to
grow. And in turn that means they will be better able to meet the needs of
their larger customers.
© Steeve Iuncker/VU
In recent times there have been a number of very violent industrial
conflicts in France. Do you think this radicalisation of employeremployee relations is an inevitable consequence of the current crisis? Given the economic context, what can be done to get industrial
relations back on track, and to broaden the dialogue?
L. P.: No, I don’t agree that this radicalisation of industrial relations is an
inevitable consequence of the crisis. Obviously a crisis like this can add to
the tension, but we should remember that businesses are the first to be
impacted by this kind of crisis and they are trying to do everything they can
to hang on to their employees, despite the tough times.
One of the top priorities for the Medef is to strengthen our direct contact
with the unions. Before we begin any actual negotiations we exchange
views in a number of different ways and try to reach pre-negotiation agreement on diagnosis, indicators and an overall objective to be reached. We
call this industrial deliberation. On 27 May this year, we began a new round
of industrial deliberation and negotiations on three themes, industrial dialogue, industrial and economic policy, and lastly inter-company relations
and the principle of labour+management decision-making. The last time
we held such wide-ranging discussions was in 1974.
q
“France, at home and abroad”, what does the phrase mean
to you?
The Total Group has built up a strong international presence, with at
least one subsidiary or worksite in 130 countries. And most of the
managers and employees of these companies are non-French. But
Total has French parentage, our head office is in Paris, we have
research centres in France and 2,500 of our French colleagues are
on expatriate postings elsewhere in the world. This is undoubtedly a
way for France to be “abroad”, just as the fact that we have Total
“inpatriates” working in France is a way for “abroad” to be present
here. In the final analysis, the important thing for Total is cultural
diversity and openness to the outside world.
Does Total’s national origin give it a ‘French touch’?
What I can say with certainty is that Total is the only one among all
the major oil groups not to have its production base in its own country, while all the English-speaking groups and national oil companies
do. This fact probably lies behind some of our values. Right from the
start we have made an effort not to impose our culture on the countries where we do business and to pay particular attention to their
needs. And today, at a time when the oil industry is dominated by
producing countries, this ability to listen to our partners can be a
definite asset.
In what way can a company like Total be an asset to France?
Can you help extend French influence abroad?
When you look at France’s real influence in world affairs you have to
admit that we continue to play an exceptional role on the international
scene. Considering France’s modest population you have to wonder
how we do it. Look at the demography figures: by 2050 the world
population is expected to reach 9 billion people, including 6 billion
Asians, 2 billion Africans and only 1 billion Europeans and Americans.
By then there should be 70 million French people, or 0.7% of the world
population. Yet Total, hailing from this “small country”, is a leading
European company and one of the top-ranking players in the world
energy industry. The Group’s influence, both at home and abroad, is
quite remarkable whether you consider Total’s renown, our size, our
assistance to SMEs, our support for culture and national heritage,
or our industrial and research facilities. French people ought to be
proud of Total’s signal success. The smaller the country and the
larger its companies, the more admirable their success. Nobody in
Switzerland would dream of disparaging the success of Nestlé!
Why do you think the French find it so difficult to take pride in
the success of major French groups?
First of all, perhaps they don’t necessarily realise that France is no
longer a major world power, and they think they still have a few lessons
to teach the world, and their own companies too. Another reason is
that there is in France an astonishing lack of knowledge about how
private enterprise works. And then the French have a very special
attitude to money, and to people and companies that make money.
This has a lot to do with France’s social, economic and political history.
Total’s situation is complicated even more by the fact that the French
are suspicious of industry: they often see the pollution but seldom the
benefits. Refineries are a good example here: people tend to forget
the contribution made by refined products in terms of mobility, autonomy and comfort, but they remember the odours and pollution.
How is Total contributing to employment in France?
Total recruits a lot of people. Even in 2009, a year marked by the
economic crisis, we recruited about 8,000 people worldwide, of which
nearly 2,000 were in France. We may from time to time reduce our
workforce in a particular business segment, but overall Total continues to recruit significant numbers in all age and qualification categories. In France, Total is the only company to become involved in the
government’s Experimental Youth-Development Fund, which allows
us to make an original and meaningful contribution to youth employment. Helping youngsters to get their driver’s licence is in many cases
equivalent to helping them get a work permit. During the last 30 years,
the Group’s Regional Development (1) department has helped to create or conserve nearly 50,000 jobs thanks to various types of support
for SMEs, and I think we could have communicated more widely
about this programme. Lastly, Total has implemented a number of
community programmes in many countries where we do business,
focusing on education and job creation.
At the same time, the refining and petrochemicals segments
are experiencing a downturn and production from the Group’s
historic Lacq gas field is due to come to an end in 2013. So
what is the outlook for Total in France?
France is one of the countries where all the Group’s business segments are represented. We want to remain an industrial player in this
country. Not only do we wish to keep our head office in La Défense
but we wish to remain active in refining and petrochemicals. We can
do this thanks to modernised, low-pollution facilities that will help
the Group reduce its overall greenhouse-gas emissions, thanks to
top-flight research centres and to a number of activities in the field
of new energies. Given the existing pool of competencies in France
and the high-quality training courses available here, France can
remain a hub on which Total can base its international scope, a home
base from which we can rise to the environmental and energy challenges of the 21st century.
A lot of people are saying that today’s business world is searching for new meaning. How do you think this will affect Total’s
future strategy?
In the long term, we see Total becoming a multi-energy group committed to research and development on new energies. In the final
analysis, our primary role in society is to supply energy. This mission
is going to become more and more difficult to accomplish. But that
same difficulty can help to cement solidarity within our Group as we
undertake a shared project of vital importance for the planet we live
on: to give people access to energy while still maintaining global
balance. If ever a mission had meaning, ours does!
Interviewed by Laure Becdelièvre
1- http://developpement-regional.total.com
No.17
29
The Total Foundation, partner to the Office of the High
Commissioner for Youth, is increasing its support for education
and the insertion of young people into the workplace.
Providing support for young people is
a way of recognising their potential
and their role as the builders of
tomorrow’s society. A large number of
today’s young people have difficulty in
completing the professional training
that will lead to employment and
independence. If these young people
are to have reasons to be confident in
the future, then the state, in
conjunction with private organisations,
must take action on all fronts: training,
employment, accommodation, health,
mobility, etc. A number of local
initiatives along these lines have
already been launched but they often
peter out because their financial
backers have not seen any evidence
that the schemes are effective. At the
same time, too many initiatives
conceived at national level do not
come up to expectations when faced
with the realities of implementation in
the field. The new policies that young
people need are necessarily
transversal and must be based on a
rigorous evaluation of experimental
programmes implemented at regional
level. That was the aim of France’s
High Commissioner for Youth, Martin
Hirsch, when he set up the
government’s Experimental Youth-
Development Fund. The Fund, with
resources of €150 million, is intended
to finance the implementation and
evaluation of pilot programmes
designed to reduce the high-school
and university drop-out rate, to
improve initial vocational guidance,
to facilitate the transition between
training/education and employment,
to encourage microcredit schemes,
to facilitate mobility, etc.
The success of this new approach will
also depend on the attitude adopted
by private enterprise. Total, via its
Corporate Foundation, answered the
call in April 2009 by offering funding of
some €50 million over six years. This
support, in line with the Group’s
commitment to solidarity, will mainly
be channelled towards funding
projects submitted in response to the
call for proposals launched by the
Office of the High Commissioner for
Youth. The first is a mobility project
called “10,000 driving licences for
success” and intended to help young
people to get a driver’s licence, which
is often indispensable if they are to
obtain employment. Some 58
projects, in all regions of France, have
now been selected for experiment.
They will be assessed to determine
q Youth employment is a recurrent problem in France. What
can be done about this? Have there been any successful initiatives in other countries? What is the responsibility of companies
in this area? What can be done to ensure that more internships
and apprenticeship contracts lead to long-term employment?
L. P.: It is quite clear that the youth employment rate depends very much
on the health of the world economy. In France, young people were the
first to feel the backlash of the economic slowdown. But there’s no need
to be fatalistic about this. There are various tried and tested avenues leading to professional insertion that can still allow young people to find
employment even in times of crisis. The June 2008 Besson Report on the
employability of young people with professional diplomas showed that
there was an employment rate difference of 15 percentage points between
high-school graduates who had also done an apprenticeship and those
who had received all their training at school. The same difference can be
seen in the type of contract they are offered: 75% of apprentices found
jobs with open-ended contracts within seven months, compared with
50% of those from the school system. The European countries that have
the lowest youth-unemployment rates are Germany, Austria and Denmark. They are also the countries that give the highest priority to so-
30
© Pierre Olivier DESCHAMPS/VU
An experimental youth-development fund
Paris, France.
their real impact and will then form
the basis for France’s new policies
in favour of youth. At the same time,
the partnership agreement signed by
Total provides for the evaluation of
the Créajeunes programme launched
by the Association for the Right to
Economic Initiative(1), which helps
young entrepreneurs set up a
company, and the Coup de Pouce Clé
(Helping Hand) programme
set up by the Association for Equal
Opportunities at School(2),
which tutors schoolchildren from
disadvantaged backgrounds.
Of course this is only a beginning;
other experimental programmes are
already under way or due to be
launched during the next few months
in a bid to give young people the
opportunity to build an ambitious and
reassuring future.
French culture,
a plural identity?
The Quai Branly Museum in Paris is devoted to the arts and civilisations
of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. The museum now counts the Total
Foundation among its major partners. Quai Branly Museum’s President
Stéphane Martin talked to Energies about the international influence of French culture.
Do you agree that French culture is “in decline”? Wouldn’t you say
that, on the contrary, there is a strong renewal today.
Stéphane Martin: I disagree with the suggestion that French culture is in
Marie-Automne Thépot,
Head of Implementation, Experimental
Youth-Development Fund, Office of the
High Commissioner for Youth
1- Adie: Association pour le droit
à l’initiative économique.
2- Apféé: Association pour favoriser
l’égalité des chances à l’école.
called “sandwich” work-and-training programmes. This trend towards
alternating study and work is becoming widespread in tertiary education too, largely because work experience is now recognised as a springboard to employment. With this in mind, in the spring of 2009 the
Medef launched a wide-ranging campaign (www.misersurlavenir.com)
to encourage private enterprise to open their doors to more young people doing “sandwich” courses. After all, helping young people to gain
hands-on experience while at the same time receiving theoretical training at school is right in line with business’s commitment to corporate
citizenship. The same goes for internships: a study programme that
includes several periods of on-the-job training is much more highly valued than a degree or diploma completed in a walled-in and purely academic environment. Today’s young people, at all stages of their initial
education, should dare to get out of the classroom and learn more about
private enterprise. n
Interviewed by Marie Le Breton
1- The Juppé-Rocard report published in November 2009 proposes spending more
on research and universities.
No.17
understanding
decline. Our culture is thriving. Furthermore, of all the “national” cultures, ours is one that has assimilated elements of foreign cultures for many
years. Look at the cinema for example; our film makers include directors
who hail from Russia, from the Arab countries… It’s a real cultural melting pot. But I do think that we should take a reality check: we’re no longer
living in the 19th century when French was the dominant literary language. But it’s quite pointless to talk about a “decline” and it conveys an
erroneous image of our culture, which is in fact quite open. There’s really
no need to get all nostalgic about our former national grandeur.
If you were to do an opinion poll and ask French people what they understand by the word “culture” their answers would include words like pleasure, happiness and fulfilment. But to Americans, culture is all about
teaching and prestige. I think other cultures envy the Frenchman’s very
special relationship with culture, our huge appetite for it. In France, it
seems much more natural to visit a museum or an art gallery, and we do
it more often. When we go to the cinema, it’s not just to “go out”, it’s
because we’re interested in the film. Culture is part of our daily life.
Do you think globalisation is creating opportunities for our culture?
S. M.: Our approach to cultural policy is interesting here because for
many years it has been based on cultural exchanges. A few years ago, our
exchanges were limited to the major European capitals, but today the
scope of this very enriching exchange of artistic values has been extended
to include countries in Asia, Latin America, the Near East and the Middle East. This is a very exciting development, but what does it really
mean? I don’t think it’s the result of cultural competition. It’s just a way
for people to satisfy their desire for more culture. That’s what exchanges
with other countries are all about.
And I don’t think you should confuse French culture with France’s
cultural policy and French art (painting, sculpture, literature, etc.).
The conditions under which art is produced are governed by a system
of references created by the international market. This means that the
notion of “national” artists was undermined quite some time ago. The
main characteristic of contemporary art is that it is part of a constant
historical process: the desire to bring into question and do better than
the artists who came before. This process is more and more universal.
How can we support French culture in other countries?
S. M.: The context of cultural support is quite different in Angola,
Mexico and England, for example. We have to adapt to the local situation and market. But mainly thanks to André Malraux, France has
been lucky enough to have a cultural policy that is regarded with great
respect. And there is a general consensus that France should make
available the necessary funds to pursue a dynamic policy of cultural
support. In fact, when state policy is being discussed, culture is seen as
just as important as health and education. Perhaps this is what the
“French exception” is all about.
How exactly do you work with cultural organisations abroad?
S. M.: My work involves a lot of contacts, travel and discussions. A lot of
people are very curious about the Quai Branly Museum and we receive
numerous requests regarding exchanges. In fact this is the only museum
in the world housing ethnological collections as well as being a museum
of contemporary art. Twice a year, with support from French embassies
abroad, I undertake a “discovery tour” including numerous meetings
with local officials. Other exchanges are organised as a result of art fairs
and international events such as the 100th anniversary of Korea’s museums. Our membership of the Asia-Europe Museum Networks (ASEMUS) has also given rise to several exchanges. In addition, I often invite
outside curators to mount exhibitions here at Quai Branly and give them
carte blanche.
Sometimes when I visit an exhibition in another country it’s “love at first
sight”. For example, in Chile there was an exhibition on “Sex, Death and
Sacrifice in the Mochica Religion” that will be coming to Quai Branly
this year (1). It’s essential to cultivate a lot of contacts abroad;
q
N°17
N
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31
© SERGE ATTAL/GLOBEPIX
find out more
q reading
Rapport sur la France et la mondialisation,
Hubert Védrine, September 2007.
Continuer l’Histoire,
Hubert Védrine, Fayard, Paris, February 2007.
Access to Energy for the Base
of the Pyramid,
Ashoka, Hystra, October 2009.
q
for instance I heard about our “Injured Objets d’Art” exhibition,
which is about art repair techniques in Africa, while talking to some
Italian colleagues.
In a way, my work is rather like the job of a literary editor; you have to
get a “feel” for exhibitions, you need a sort of reference grid to choose
the best proposals, and then the ongoing series of exhibitions we put on
will forge the identity of our museum. When we put on “Tarzan” backto-back with “An African Presence” the effect was one of surprise,
showing that the museum refused to be didactic. We would not have
shown “Tarzan” if we hadn’t been going to follow it up with the second
exhibition. The full meaning was in the pairing sequence and the people
visiting the museum realised that; about half of them were regular
visitors to Quai Branly.
How is French culture perceived by the rest of the world?
S. M.: In general terms, they recognise French culture. Our architects
have forged a major position, and French literature is highly appreciated.
Today, the “French touch” includes voluntary cross-fertilization, and this
Forging ties between museums here and there
The Louvre Museum, in line with its universal vocation, is keen to step up
its initiatives to share works of art, skills and know-how. Two examples
of cooperation with Yemen, both with support from Total, are statue restoration
and training sessions.
In 2006, a Yemeni statue called
“The Bronze Man” dating back more
than 2,500 years was restored as
part of an agreement between
the Louvre and Yemen’s General
Organisation for Antiquities,
Museums and Manuscripts
(GOAMM). The statue, which had
been acquired in 2004 by the
National Museum in Sana’a, had
remained in storage because the
museum lacked the technical
know-how to restore it. Restoration
was finally made possible thanks to
the Louvre’s know-how; in addition,
the museum invited two Yemeni art
restorers to Paris to do a three-week
training course.
This cooperation continued in 2008
with the restoration of two bronze
statues of lions. One was a statuette
recently discovered on the
Jebal al-Awd site and given to the
Ibb Museum, and the other was a
large wall-mounted piece that had
been acquired by the National
Museum in Sana’a. Total had already
provided support for the restoration
of “The Bronze Man” and now
decided to partner the Louvre once
more as the museum shared its
scientific know-how in helping to
restore the two lions.
“The antique bronze was extremely
fragile and an emergency restoration
was undertaken based on seven
fragments. This was a veritable
salvage operation”, says Françoise
Demange, Chief Curator of Oriental
Antiquities at the Louvre Museum.
As part of the operation, the Louvre
also shared its know-how with two
Yemeni trainees. Once the two
statues had been restored, they
went on display in the Louvre
Museum from June to
December 2009. This gave French
museum-goers a chance to view
these ancient works of art, never
before shown in public, and to gain a
better understanding of a civilisation
that thrived in the Arabian Peninsula
during the 1st millennium BC. The
statues are now back in Yemen, on
show in Sana’a and Ibb respectively.
In the spring of 2009, the National
Museum in Aden was host to about
30 professionals from museums all
over Yemen for a one-week training
course in preventive conservation
techniques. During a first phase,
the trainees were encouraged to
describe the specific conservation
problems they had frequently
encountered and then they were
taught some simple solutions able to
be implemented with limited
resources, so as to help maintain
museum collections in good
condition.
“The staff of the Yemeni museums
were very keen to learn how to
organise their storage facilities and
to protect the works of art there from
factors such as dust or high
humidity. They were also very
interested in lighting issues. All
of these factors can help to forestall
the need for complex and costly
restoration work later on”, adds
Françoise Demange. The Louvre has
also put in place similar partnerships
with museums in Syria, Egypt
and Iran and plans to broaden its
horizons even further.
The Next 4 Billion: Market Size
and Business Strategy at the Base
of the Pyramid,
World Resources Institute, March 2007.
is what we should be highlighting. The most interesting thing is the quality of our museum’s approach here. We are curious about all other cultures
and that drives us forward. I have also noticed that visitors are fascinated by
the singularity of Quai Branly. You know, there are two kinds of museum.
The first is the national museum model, showing elements of a national
heritage in a rather static way. The second is the great universal museum
model, a museum operating within the positivist tradition of a vast catalogue of world cultures. This approach is extensive and very stable.
France, ton atout “jeunes” : un avenir
à tout jeune,
Senate Information Report, May 2009.
Le message culturel de la France
et la vocation interculturelle
de la francophonie,
French Economic, Social and Environmental
Council Report, 2009.
How do you go about promoting an understanding of far-flung
cultures here in Paris? Is it a difficult challenge?
S. M.: Well, there are some pitfalls to avoid. We get a whole lot of propos-
q surfing
als for exhibitions that say nothing but platitudes. I think that cultures
have brutal aspects too so we also need to show things that haven’t been
bowdlerised down or made more folkloric. If we are to respect a particular culture, we need to express its true message. We must consider all
parts of the world in the same way, without belittling them. In 2013 we
will be putting on a second Maori exhibition, put together by New Zealand. It will be very interesting because it is committed. There is no
universal exhibition style; there are always other ways to present things.
The main challenge is to mediate between the subject and our museum
visitors. We should avoid ready-made approaches here. We have inherited a past when museums were given limited resources to work with.
Quai Branly has a responsibility to offer a quality display. We should
convey a subtle statement that asks as many questions as possible. Our
mission is to discuss other cultures in terms of the same values as those
we would apply to Ingres or Michelangelo.
Hubert Védrine’s website
www.hubertvedrine.net
The Grenelle Environmental Forum
www.legrenelle-environnement.fr
French Environment and Energy
Management Agency (Ademe)
www.ademe.fr
French Development Agency
www.afd.fr
UN Climate Change Conference
http://en.cop15.dk/
Lacq Carbon Dioxide Capture
and Geological Storage project
http://www.total.com/fr/enjeux/
captage-et-stockage-geologique-de-co2/
mieux-comprendre-900271.html
Konarka Technologies
www.konarka.com
Planète Energies website
“Pour comprendre les énergies”
www.planete-energies.com
You recently paid tribute to Claude Levi Strauss, the great anthropologist who died in October 2009. What is his legacy to you?
S. M.: When a museum of anthropology was first proposed, Claude Levi
Jean Féger Scientific and Technical
Centre (CSTJF)
http://www.total.com/fr/nos-energies/
petrole/explorer-et-produire/nos-savoirfaire/cstjf-900106.html
Strauss was among the first to support the Quai Branly project, and he
was present at the museum’s inauguration. That mark of confidence was
a major plus for the museum. Levi Strauss was a learned scholar and the
founder of structuralism, which was a current of thought as important as
Marxism or Freudian psychoanalysis. He demonstrated that structuralism was a veritable humanism. He was also a great art collector and had
a strongly physical relationship with the objects he owned. Claude LeviStrauss was someone very rare and special, and for me he remains a
model. He epitomizes the marriage between knowledge and emotion,
between science and poetry. They are indeed the principles behind the
policy I pursue at the Quai Branly Museum. n
French National Scientific Research Centre
(CNRS)
www.cnrs.fr
French Employers Association (Medef)
www.medef.com
Total Développement Régional
http://developpement-regional.total.com
Phytorem S.A.
www.phytorem.com
Caudalie et Spas Vinothérapie
www.caudalie.com
Interviewed by Barbara Boisnard
French High Commissioner for Youth
www.jeunesse-vie-associative.gouv.fr
Barbara Boisnard
Musée du quai Branly
www.quaibranly.fr
1- Quai Branly Museum, 9 March - 30 May 2010.
32
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No.17
33
THE ENERGY
TO SHARE
The inauguration of Atotech’s technical
The lead dancer
and biotechnology production centre
in Guangzhou, China, 24 September 2009.
Rosa Zhang, Sartomer plant, Nansha, Guangdong, China.
PORTRAITS FROM
CHINA AND SINGAPORE
In Asia, September 2009 was an eventful month for
Total’s Chemicals segment and an ideal opportunity to meet
with its employees. When a photographer becomes
choreographer, and the workers become dancers, a kaleidoscopic
ballet comes to life.
34
interstices between the group’s
factories and offices located in
Guangdong Province (1) and
Singapore. “Some people come
from very far away. They bring
with them an enthusiasm and
iron will you can detect in their
work. These people are completely focused on the future, their
own, but also that of their family,
their company and their region.”
We understand better why the
employees standing before the
photographer’s lens were asked
to pose with flashes. “This series,”
he says, “is wholly in keeping
with Warhol’s notion of fifteen
minutes of fame. They too are the
stars, standing in the spotlight to
express their personality, show the
position they hold in the company
and share the flavours of their everyday environment, which make
up the true spice of life.” Actors to
your places, curtain up!
Fouez Balit
Laurent Zylberman
“These people are completely
focused on the future, their own,
but also that of their family,
their company and their region”
1- Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province.
No.17
captions: Laure Mentzel
ased in China throughout the 1980s as a permanent correspondent, Laurent
Zylberman knows the country
inside and out and has been in
a privileged position to witness
Canton’s transformation over
the last 30 years. The profession
of photographer has given him
the opportunity to explore the
industrious and booming southern China from every angle. “I
have seen the economic upsurge
free up unbelievable energy and
watched the region’s paddy fields
be taken over by a sprawling
metropolis. Los Angeles pales in
comparison. You can still make
out different layers of architecture
and urbanisation that illustrate
the change and progress made in
Guangzhou.” Southern China is
unrecognisable—and so are its
people. Economic growth has
led to a massive influx of workers
from across China and the rest
of Asia, ready to try their luck
in the Canton region. Our photographer, fluent in Mandarin, is
above all interested in these personal stories when he navigates the
© http://365degres.com
B
No.17
35
Prabakaran A/I Krishnan (left),
Total Petrochemicals plant,
Singapore.
Bonnie Luo (right),
Bostik plant,
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Out of the frame
Abhiram Kheridehal Venkata
(right) and Ramkumar Mandalam
Rajaraman (left),
Singapore.
The footlights
May Shen (above),
Bostik plant,
Guangzhou, Guangdong,
China.
Yongshan Yi (opposite)
and Smile Gao (below),
Foshan, Guangdong, China.
36
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No.17
37
The grand finale
Ramkumar Madalam
Rajaraman (above),
Singapore.
Kate Liu (opposite),
Foshan, Guangdong, China.
Laurent Suspene (below),
Sartomer, Nansha,
Guangdong, China.
Ready made art
Yong Ju,
Samsung Total Petrochemicals
plant, Dongguan, Guangdong,
China.
A store sales assistant,
Guo Xin Electrical
Appliance Company,
Dongguan, Guangdong, China.
38
No.17
No.17
39
The energy to analyse
Within dialogue, 2000, April Hickox.
FROM OIL REVENUES TO
THE SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY
An interview with Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah,
Deputy Premier of Qatar and Minister of
Energy & Industry.
In the “paradox of plenty,” over-reliance on revenues from natural
resources hampers development of other economic sectors and is
accompanied by high inflation, an undiversified, uncompetitive
economy that may be further weakened by corruption and secrecy
shrouding how resource wealth is distributed. Some producing
countries seem to be mired in these problems, while others manage
to deploy long-term development strategies and promote the
emergence of a competitive, nonoil-based economy. What constitutes a balanced economic development strategy for an oil or gas
producing country like yours?
Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah: Any oil and gas producing country that
aspires to develop a balanced economy must seek ways to leverage its financial wealth earned from hydrocarbon resources into sustainable assets for
its people. This involves coordinating several vital elements; firstly developing the country’s human capital by creating a highly skilled and productive labour force that has the correct mix of training and practical experience to meet the demanding needs of a diversified economy. Therefore
providing access to world class educational facilities, a high quality scientific environment, industry-diverse academic programs and professional
preparation are essential.
Secondly a balanced economy needs strong private sector participation
that can capitalize on opportunities for investment in projects outside the
hydrocarbon sector. However in order for the private sector to contribute
effectively in the development process governments need to provide the
right mix of incentives and benefits to attract the capital that is required for
such projects. Thirdly governments need to foster a sound business climate
by creating a free market economy and supporting it with the necessary
regulatory framework. We are living in a dynamic global economy where
we need to enhance competitiveness and attract investment if we want to
be successful in the long-term. Fourthly governments need to develop
40
combinations of stable monetary and fiscal policies to ensure stable economic growth that avoids overheating of the economy and ensures a stable
low inflation rate. Finally, there should be transparent and accountable
government polices that have the clarity of vision to bring all these factors
together. Based on our national leadership’s clear vision and direction,
Qatar has been investing some of its resources to improve these elements.
During the last decade the State of Qatar has witnessed a major shift towards modernization in all aspects of life. Reform has occurred in all levels
of economic, social and political life. This stems from the belief that development should be a comprehensive processes and we should embark accordingly upon comprehensive plans and programs to succeed in today’s
rapidly changing world.
What motivates a government to introduce such a strategy?
A. B. H. Al-A.: Oil and gas exporting countries are exposed to price vola-
tility and the adverse effects of fluctuating export revenue on the economy.
The need to develop a more sustainable and balanced economy is perhaps
the most pressing factor behind formulating strategies to change from
single commodity economy. The core of the strategy must focus on reducing dependency on hydrocarbon industries, and to develop competitive industries in non-oil sectors.
What obstacles can arise?
A. B. H. Al-A.: The national development strategy in Qatar is a tool to imple-
ment the country’s formal vision; however it is a dynamic process that has to
respond to the current local and international environments without loosing
sight of the long term objectives. In such a process of development all countries will face challenging situations as you try to align various sectorial strategies with the overall national development strategy. You also are trying to
improve the regional geopolitical environment (continued on page 42) q
No.17
PRODUCER AND CONSUMER
COUNTRIES: THE KEYS
TO A WIN-WIN RELATIONSHIP
An interview with Christophe de Margerie, Chief Executive Officer, Total.
How would you define a balanced economic development policy
for an oil-producing country?
Christophe de Margerie: Before answering that question, I would like to
make one thing very clear. Before you talk about development policy you have
to know what sort of producing country you’re dealing with. From my point of
view, there are three categories here: countries that are capable of producing a
lot of oil and are relatively sparsely populated, such as those in the Gulf; countries where oil revenues account for only a small part of the national budget
(such as Indonesia); and lastly, countries like Angola, which are emerging from
a long period of war and for which oil is the means to development. I mentioned Angola, but like everyone else, I’m thinking of Iraq as well. So the way
you pursue a balanced development policy depends on which category your
country falls into. A country that is emerging from conflict, often long and
destructive, needs to be able to maximise their production. The main thing
here is to achieve this while complying with the rules of good governance,
because the country’s resources should stimulate the economy rather than just
benefiting a minority of the people. Things are improving in this area, but
there is still a lot to be done. I cited Indonesia as an example of a country where
oil accounts for only a part of national revenue. But I could also cite the United
Kingdom. Both are producing countries and neither is any longer self sufficient. Both are also trying to produce as much as possible, one by optimising
its technology and the other by investing massively in exploration. They are
also raising the taxes they levy on oil companies, which is a normal reaction to
rising oil prices. What’s more, when people say to us: “You agree to pay higher
royalties in Britain but not in France”, it must be remembered that we’re talking
about production-based royalties and not consumption-based taxes. They’re
not the same thing. As for producing countries that enjoy very high revenues,
such as Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf countries in general, a balanced development policy means finding the best possible way to manage fabulous wealth
that the country does not necessarily need at present. These countries can
quite reasonably ask themselves whether it’s not in their interest to preserve
resources for future generations and limit current production to what is necessary. This is quite a normal reaction. Moreover, that is what Norway is doing in
a different way via its stabilisation fund. This is an admirable idea. So why is
this policy praised when Norway pursues it but criticised when a Middle East
country does the same thing? These countries are keeping reserves for future
use, but they are also producing more then they currently need to. And they
are investing part of their revenue in international companies, such as… Total!
These exchanges help to maintain the world balance. That’s what we call a
win-win relationship.
Do you think that globalisation has led to a new deal?
C. de M.: Yes I do. Today, we are all—industrialised countries, emerging econ-
omies and producing countries—working within a common system. Gone are
the days when we could exist in autarky. The rich countries are not the only
ones suffering from the current downturn. But you have to wonder whether
producing countries see themselves as part of the global matrix or whether
they are only interested in themselves. For both producers and consumers, the
important thing is that exchange must be reciprocal, that there is real sharing
involved. It is indispensable to devise a relationship that ensures that producing
countries—which need our money as much as we need the oil they produce—
contribute to a global balance. Certainly they can see that it’s in their interest
to invest in our economies, but we in the West also need to give them good
reasons to do so.
What are those reasons, and how can we motivate the producing
countries?
C. de M.: It is too easy to see producing countries and consumer countries
as opposed to each other and to situate the international oil companies
right in the middle. To my mind, the most (continued on page 43) q
No.17
41
analysing
to create a lasting regional stability. Locally, challenges could arise in
every domain of life from the development of education and social welfare
systems to say meeting power and water demand. Any wise government will
have to balance all these factors to serve the interests of its population and
achieve the overall development goals.
q
What role do sovereign wealth funds play in this strategy?
A. B. H. Al-A.: Although Sovereign Wealth Funds are not new, they moved
into the spot light few years back during the rise of oil prices, when many
oil producing countries acquired substantial export revenues. The increased revenue created unprecedented opportunities for large-scale overseas investments via SWFs. As a result of the huge investments made by
SWFs some countries have become key players in the international financial markets as significant stakes of leading financial institutes and industrial companies have been bought by the SWFs. Sovereign Wealth Funds
may serve many different purposes however depending on the country
managing them. For instance SWFs can play a significant role in diversifying state revenue, particularly in the case of a commodity export
economy. In addition, if well managed, SWFs can minimize the vulnerability of a country’s income to energy price fluctuations by creating other
revenue flows. Established in 2005, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Since then, QIA has been playing an active
rôle by investing in foreign markets, mostly through the acquisition of
commercial assets and real estate, and the purchase of shares in high
quality financial and industrial firms.
How “green” could a wise reinvestment policy be?
A. B. H. Al-A.: Unfortunately, the development of hydrocarbon resources
has an undesirable effect on the natural environment. However, we must
strike a balance between economic growth and social development, and
protection of the environment and the preservation of natural resources.
Therefore we need an effective protection system based on legislative
frameworks, legal instruments, implementation mechanisms, specific environmental controls and measurements, as well as clearly defined practical and measurable programs. Of course our overseas investments can
and are directed towards clean industries as these are certainly areas where
financial investments can be made. Qatar is investing heavily in science
and technology in these areas. Many of the projects taking place under the
umbrella of the Qatar Science and Technology Park are “green” in nature.
I quote from the National Vision Statement(1): “Wherever there is an environmental cost to be paid for economic proqress, it must be compensated with
investments in technologies that help improve the environment. Qatar has
already committed to enforcing international standards for environmental
protection when designing and implementing its industrial projects. However, Qatar’s efforts in protecting the environment will not be sufficient.
Qatar is a part of the Gulf Region which forms one ecological system that is
affected by the practices and activities of every country in the region. It will
be necessary to engage and to encourage all of the Gulf States to protect and
conserve the environment.” (National Vision for Qatar 2030)
Does the degree of modernization of the society influence this
strategy and vice versa?
A. B. H. Al-A.: To a large extent, a balanced economic development
strategy can yield the expected results and outcomes much more effectively than a less modernized one. A modernized society would have the
necessary elements such as diversified mix of trained human capital, open
and fixable economic structures, transparent and accountable government, higher institutional capacity, strong private sector, sound business
climate. Again from our Vision Statement: “Qatar’s very rapid economic
and population growth have created intense strains between the old and new
in almost every aspect of life. Modern work patterns and pressures of competitiveness sometimes clash with traditional relationships based on trust
and personal ties, and create strains for family life. Moreover, the greater
freedoms and wider choices that accompany economic and social progress
pose a challenge to deep-rooted social values highly cherished by society. Yet
it is possible to combine modern life with values and culture. Other societies
have successfully molded modernization around local culture and traditions.
Qatar’s National Vision responds to this challenge and seeks to connect and
balance the old and the new.” (National Vision for Qatar 2030) n
1- Approved by the Emir in 2008, the National Vision for Qatar 2030 is a document
that sets out the country’s long-term goals and defines a framework for the
development of national policies. It addresses five major challenges facing Qatar:
modernising the country while preserving its traditions; meeting the needs of the
current and future generations; managing growth and uncontrolled expansion;
controlling the size and quality of the expatriate labour force; ensuring economic
growth, social development and environmental protection.
important factor in this relationship will be our behaviour. It is essential to listen to and respect our interlocutors. For example, we should
avoid the arrogance of asking oil-producing countries to increase their output
while at the same time refusing to let them invest the proceeds in Western
economies. Furthermore, producing countries have problems of their own;
we shouldn’t just ignore that and consider them as nothing more than our
source of oil and gas. That attitude belongs to the past. Take Iran, for example. Iran is an important country by virtue of its size and population, of
course. But also by virtue of its culture and its history. We should not forget
that aspect. We have a direct interest in building a win-win relationship between energy producers and consumer countries, quite simply because we
need their energy. If there were no problems in Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria and elsewhere, oil companies would be able to produce more, and
more cheaply. The international oil companies cannot be held responsible
for all the ills of the world while politicians take decisions that have considerable repercussions. Using Ukraine against Russia by asking that the country
enjoy a “Soviet-era” tariff is a typical example of bad policy. In that particular
case Europe’s reaction was ill considered, especially as at the same time
Europeans expressed surprise that there were repercussions in the area of gas
supply. Either we were quite naïve or we assumed—once again—that we
were right because we are the only people who stand for freedom and the
rule of law. You cannot possibly expect countries that are just experimenting
with democracy (or perhaps haven’t even got that far…) to behave the same
way as countries with a 200-year history of democracy. There has often been
a violent backlash when people have tried to speed up History. We tend to
forget that for us in the West, too, the long road to democracy has included
civil wars and religious strife. That doesn’t mean that others shouldn’t benefit from our experience, but they cannot be expected to change overnight.
No country can do that. At the risk of being politically incorrect, I maintain
that democracy is an ideal that should be implemented with great caution.
Each democracy is different, whether you’re talking about the United States,
France or the United Kingdom—to cite only the oldest Western democracies. But they do all have something in common: people in democracies
have freedom of speech and the right to determine their own future. The
differences are in the way government is organised. Democracy is a value
that has to be acquired. And the form of democracy created must suit the
culture of the country concerned.
q
Are you thinking of Iraq when you say that?
C. de M.: How can I not think of Iraq? The
Americans have tried to impose a concept on
Iraq with complete disregard for the history
of that country. I have said, and I repeat
here, that the U.S intervention had honourable motives, that there was a certain
logic in it. Washington thought it would
be easy because Iraq was an oil producer and that turning it into a democracy
would bring more oil onto the market and so help boost world production.
Their primary motif was not simply to gain access to Iraq’s reserves. The lesson
here is that if you fail to take into account the realities of a country, you end up
paying a high price. Iraq is made up of many communities—Sunnis, Shiites,
Kurds, Christians…—but the country has been like that for centuries and this
had nothing to do with the fact that the previous regime was detestable. Who
could have defended that regime? The problem today is that is it so difficult to
keep the country united, despite the fact that a majority of Iraqis want a united
country. The road to unity is democracy, if it can be properly organised. But to
come back to oil, Iraq’s reserves are unevenly spread across the country, and
this will cause problems too. The centre of the country, where the Sunnis live,
has less oil than the south, where the Shiites are, or the north, which is close to
Kurdistan. So the sharing of wealth will obviously have consequences for national unity. I find it regrettable that we in the West, while advocating democracy so volubly, tend to judge it solely in terms of our own vision and of our own
interests. For example, our position is difficult to defend when we advocate
elections and then claim they were “fixed” just because the result was not what
we hoped for.
So you think the West has got the whole thing wrong?
C. de M.: Of course not! Anyway, our aim should not be to pin the blame on
someone. The way forward is to foster a relationship based on confidence. Our
first priority should be to ensure that we are accepted. I place great stock in the
concept of “acceptability”. Gone are the days when international oil companies could go into a country, pump out the oil and leave again. Today, we have
to adopt a different behaviour. Above all, we have to stop acting as if we have
something to teach host countries. Take sovereign wealth funds for example.
Obviously people react differently depending on whether it is a Norwegian or
a Chinese fund that wants a stake in their economy. Of course it is quite
normal to take precautions, and it is normal to argue that the governance
practised by certain countries is not compatible with our own values. But to
use these as reasons for saying their money is “dangerous” is going just too far.
We must not be too quick to decide what is good and what is bad. I am the first
to admit that it is sometimes hard not to draw such conclusions, but we do have
to make the effort if we want to remain coherent. At Total, some 5% of our
stock is held by what we call “rest of the world” investors, i.e. non-Western
shareholders, while just over two-thirds of our activities are in non-Western
countries. I am not saying the proportions should match, but we are still a very
long way from the situation where we could claim that Total is controlled by
“dangerous money”. People often fail to appreciate how aggressive and hurtful
other cultures may find statements like that. Furthermore, I have found it very
interesting indeed to see that since the financial crisis began companies everywhere have been courting sovereign wealth funds, hoping their investments
will send share prices higher. They’re all doing it, even those that not so long
ago turned those investors away! n
This interview was carried out by the staff of Politique Internationale, No. 125, Autumn 2009
42
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the energy to discover
The microcapital
revolution
reportage : © Marc Roussel/total
A “social entrepreneur” and a major industrial group in a rich
country where poverty still exists: whilst their encounter may
have created a few sparks, they weren’t the ones you might
imagine. It has lit up the future of many ordinary people
who have become the heroes of not only this story, but
their own as well, perhaps with wider implications for us all.
A
rriving in Caracas is quite an experience. It all starts in the plane, which
plunges dramatically towards the runway to
avoid the cliffs that border the ocean. No sooner
have you recovered from this first wave of emotion, somewhere between the shock of sudden
beauty and sheer panic, than you are swallowed
up in the phenomenal traffic, as hordes of
Caraqueños return from a weekend at the
beach. Once you are through the last tunnel,
there is another shock: the sudden appearance
of a shanty town, sliced in two by the four-lane
motorway. Of the city’s many ranchos, the Venezuelan equivalent of the Brazilian favelas, the
one known as “23 de enero” (23 January) stands
out because it is the first mountain carpeted
with red bricks and corrugated iron you come
across, and it’s also the last one you leave
behind. A clash of environments so typical of
Venezuela.
Suddenly landing in Caracas late on a Sunday,
the majestic decor jars with the reputation for
danger it has earned. Between five and seven
million inhabitants (according to some sources) make up a heterogeneous population where
tremendous wealth rubs shoulders with abject
poverty.
The Bankomunales: hope for
the most disadvantaged
Obviously this great social divide prompts various initiatives. The one started by Diana Vilera
and Salomon Raydan is pretty remarkable. An
anthropologist by training and then in charge
of an NGO for 25 years, Diana Vilera now
manages sustainable development initiatives at
Total’s Venezuelan subsidiary. A philosopher
and a former student of political sociology at
the London School of Economics, Salomon
Raydan is the founder of Fundefir(1), the NGO
that forms the basis of their enterprise. The
idea is beautifully simple and wildly ambitious:
to help communities to develop, they need to
be helped to create their own banks, turn their
money into capital to invest and make it grow.
This is the principle behind the Bankomunales
or BK, the new generation of microcredit.
“Muhammad Yunus (2) is the father of us all. He
proved that the poor could be financed; today,
the Bankomunales are showing that they can
finance themselves!” declares Salomon Raydan
proudly, explaining, “Even the poorest communities have resources, however marginal they
may be. We give them the knowledge
q
BEJUCALES. The members of the Bankomunal
leaving a meeting. Founded in 2004, Bejucales
is the oldest BK in Monagas State.
discover
The microcapital revolution
they need to make these resources grow,”
confirms Diana Vilera, reinterpreting, in the
spirit of recent theories on the economics of
development, the maxim of Confucius: “When
a man is hungry, it is better to teach him to fish
than to give him a fish.” How? By creating small,
geographically and socially homogeneous
groups and turn them into the shareholders of
their own bank. Its capital is made up of their
joint savings. They can then borrow this capital
based on an interest rate and limits agreed by
the shareholders. The financial version of Rousseau’s Social Contract, but first and foremost a
closed circuit with a guarantee of minimal risk,
reliable income and economic independence
for the community. The Bankokomunales work
on three levels: consumption, income generation and family capitalisation. They meet vital
q
needs, not just for food and medicine but also
for clothes and items for the home. They also
provide financing for micro- and even nanobusinesses. But that is where the resemblance
with the notion of sustainable development as it
existed ten years ago ends. By teaching its
members management techniques, the BK
become partners in the development of small
family businesses. Better still, the objective for
2010 is to create a network of BK, whose
combined resources will make it possible to
support more ambitious projects involving the
wider community, such as the creation of a
transport company. This presupposes that the
banks will be computerised and therefore that
some of their shareholders will be trained, as
well as developing remote finance software, on
which Fundefir is already working.
There’s nothing otherworldly about these
initiatives. For Total, it is about “the business
and the community living alongside each other
as good neighbours,” explains Diana Vilera.
New BKs were set up in the country in 2003
with the support of the Venezuelan subsidiary,
which by then had created its sustainable
development department. At the time, the
Jusepin oil field was suffering from industrial
unrest. The repeated strikes and systematic
blockage of the site meant everyone was paying
the high price of social inequality and the
frustration felt by local communities. The fact
that the situation calmed down is primarily
thanks to the creation of the Bankomunales
and the discussions between the local community, the NGO and the business that were
needed to set them up.
“Total has entered into a formal agreement
with Fundefir. We finance the majority of their
operating budget, so that they can provide the
technical support the Bankomunales need. We
know that dialogue is the basis of mutual understanding and intermediaries such as Fundefir
and the UNDP (United Nations Development
Programme) and even other NGOs can help
use to reduce the distance between us and the
inequalities that separate us.”
We leave Caracas the following day. Next step:
the hills, the countryside and islands with
promising-sounding names. But that’s not all:
behind the dreams of virgin landscapes, we are
keen to compare this seductive theory with
what actually happens in practice. Wide-eyed,
nostrils a-quiver and with our diaries firmly in
our laps, we prepare to confront reality.
A lever for micro-businesses
Elsa Guacaran,
Chair of the BK
Colinas del Orituco,
explains how it
works. Altagracia,
Guarico State.
In the end, a journey that looked like a ridiculously short distance on the map took us five
hours. Altagracia is only 150 km from the capital
but it’s a whole other world. Manuel Berroteran,
a representative from Ypergas—a gas production
site in which Total has a 69.5% stake—takes us to
the Bankomunal Colinas del Orituco. He
describes the many
difficulties faced by the
people who live in the
region. To start with,
there is no pharmacy
or medical professionals: here, when someone is ill, they have to
go to the capital. The
picture we see before
us is not, however, one of abject poverty. The
meeting is held in the evening, after work, this
time at the home of Elsa Guacaran, the current
chair. “We started out as a family experiment,
putting away some money for the children,” she
explains. “Now there are 74 shareholders including my three daughters, who have invested their
pocket money,” says Elsa Guacaran proudly. A
shoemaker’s, a goldsmith’s and a photocopying
service are just some of the diverse businesses
in which women are in the majority of entrepreneurs. Muhammad Yunus, the creator of
microcredit and winner of the 2006 Nobel
Peace Prize, predicted this. It is why loans from
the Grameen Bank were only granted to Bangladeshi women. The economist’s justification
was that women have a more deep-rooted
concern for the well-being of their families.
Not just anyone can join one of these microbanks. A BK operates on the basis of co-option.
You have to be recommended by a socio to
become a shareholder yourself.
There are 17 Bankomunales in Altagracia.
The one in La Planta meets in a small chapel
in a rather grim neighbourhood. “At the beginning we had capital of 70 bolivars (3). Three
years later, we have 14,000. In 2008, from an
initial capital of 7,000 bolivars, we distributed
3,000 bolivars in profits to our shareholders.”
Now it’s Alfredo Real’s turn to do the counting. He speaks as a seasoned chair and a
professional in popular finance. Here, they
have set up a scoring system for borrowers,
who are graded A, B or C based on their creditworthiness and how prompt they are in
paying back their loans. There’s no otherworldliness here either, just good business
sense. La Planta applies punitive rates to its
late penalties, of up to 12%. But bad payers are
rare and the system
works well. Throughout the interview, the
treasurer, Jaime Diaz,
never budges an inch
from his briefcase.
The bank’s capital is
inside. He never lets it
out of his sight.
Next we get on a plane
to Maturin. Night has fallen and the town
looks like a small Las Vegas. It has prospered
from the drilling and is now dotted with hotel
casinos that light up the sky with their ostentatious signs. The twinkling electric lights,
however, soon melt into the dazzling orange
of the flare stacks. We are close to the Jusepin
oil field.
We are going to visit the Bankomunal
mentioned by Diana Vilera, which helped
to resolve the conf licts of 2003. Total has
since withdrawn its involvement. Not the
A BK works by
co-option. You need
to be recommended
by a socio to become
a shareholder
in your turn.
No.17
Salomon Raydan,
Chair of Fundefir, on the
campus of the Universidad de
Oriente, Nueva Esparta State.
shareholders of the BK Bejucales. We meet up
with 15 determined young farmers who are a
bit tired of waiting for us. It’s 9 pm and chairman Wider José Palacios takes his turn to
speak. Wearing a Total t-shirt and a Yankees
cap, he explains: “Our projects focus on developing local businesses. We want to create more
micro-businesses and improve the quality of life
of our socios. To join us, you just need to buy a
share, but please note that we will never accept
drunkards!” Francelys Cabello, 22 and already
the mother of two little girls, was able to open
a small grocery store thanks to a loan from the
bank. “The Bankomunal solved a lot of problems for me. It gave me prospects.” Something
that no-one would dare to question, judging
by the bright colours of the grocery and the
smile on its owner’s face.
As we leave Maturin, we see a police car
inscribed with the words “Patria, socialismo o
muerte” (“the homeland, socialism or death”),
apparently hammering its message home.
Off to the Caribbean. We arrive on the island
of Margarita in the early afternoon and are
greeted by Salomon Raydan, who uses it as a
place to work and think.
He drives us straight to the village of La Isleta, a
small fishing port that has modestly shied away
from attracting hordes of visitors. The Bankomunal named after the village is one of the few that
has its own premises, in the former prison. “The
average salary in Venezuela in 900 bolivars a
month,” explains chair Yohan Vicent. “We have
therefore set a maximum borrowing limit of
3,000 bolivars, repayable over 18 months. In
eight years, we have granted 1,300 loans, only
two of which have not been repaid.”
q
47
discover
The microcapital
revolution
q The selection criteria are quite rigorous:
you must have been resident in La Isleta for at
least three years, be recommended by another
shareholder and sign a declaration of good faith
to join. “Signing the form reminds them of the
commitment they are making,” adds Salomon
Raydan. “It’s a symbolic act that doesn’t carry
any legal weight but it’s a way of educating
people.” Ever-cautious, the Junta, the team that
manages the Bankomunal, has set aside a
contingency fund of 20% of the amount of
loans outstanding, to mitigate the effects of any
that are not repaid. It seems a pointless attitude,
but I try to understand. “We live in a country
where, traditionally, nobody pays,” explains
Salomon Raydan. “Everyone thinks that money
comes from oil so it belongs to everyone. In the
Bankomunales it’s different, because it’s their
own money they’re lending each other.” And
which, at the end of the cycle, generates a profit! Would it be going too far to talk about a new
model of political economy? “What counts is
the individual. Organisations don’t need to be
powerful. The individual is at the centre of the
system and pools his resources with others in his
own interest.” Let’s take an example. Eight years
ago, Gianfranco borrowed enough money to
buy a bicycle so he could sell the fish his father
caught in the neighbouring villages. Today, he
has a refrigerated lorry and delivers to the most
upmarket restaurants in Porlamar(4).
As well as the fuel the
country gives its citizens practically for
free (they pay around
one euro for 60 litres
of unleaded), in 2004
Venezuela passed a
social law that obliges
all students to give up 120 hours of their time
to a community service project. Fundefir
seized the opportunity to persuade the Universidad de Oriente, one of whose five campuses
is in Porlamar, to apply its methods by creating
Bankomunales. Asdrubal Zapata, a student in
administration, has just embarked on the
project with six friends. He has given himself
three months to get “his” BK, in Puerto
Fermin, up and running independently.
Isleta Comunal. This BK
is located on Margarita island.
Left, Yohan Vicent, chair of
the BK. Right, a socia offering
pastries produced by the bakery
she created thanks to loans
from the BK.
Francelys Cabello, 22, at the
helm of her micro-business, a grocery
store that she opened thanks
to her membership of Bejucales.
Leonardo Rivas, one of his tutors, thinks the
environment looks promising: “The university
is isolated from the rest of society. It’s a unique
opportunity to use the law and the experience
of the Bankomunales to develop our social role.
We are even thinking about creating a course in
microfinance.” Salomon Raydan, of course,
would be delighted, particularly with the four
Bachelor thesis that have already been devoted
to the Bankomunales
at the UDO. The
universities in Caracas
have also been looking at the situation.
Two similar projects
have been developed
there: implementing
them has only been hindered by the safety and
security problems students encounter in the
capital’s ranchos. Far from the bright lights of
the city, we are sorry to leave behind the luxuriant world of learning and young people of
the Universidad de Oriente to go on one more
visit to pay our respects.
The Bankomunal Banpeninsular was the first
to be created by Fundefir in 1999, by 18 women
and one man. “Despite our doubts, we accepted
“We didn’t go to
university but
instead, the
university came
to us!”
48
No.17
the proposal as a challenge that the housewives
we all were at the time should face,” admits
Omaira Narvaez, one of the many sisters and
cousins who dominate the Junta. Today, it has
203 shareholders, five of whom are also
employees, votes using secret ballots, has a
brightly lit office made available to it by the
town hall and has granted over 2,000 loans. If
light fills the office of this particular BK, it is
because it has become sufficiently large and
professional to meet during the day. With their
arms folded high over their chests, the Narvaez
women look you straight in the eye and aren’t
in the habit of joking about business. “The
idea that really caught our imagination,” says
Ludis, the eldest and most talkative of them,
“was that we were going to be the owners of this
Bankomunal, that we were going to be investors.” And turning to Salomon Raydan, she
raises her voice and declares, “At the end of the
day, we didn’t go to university but instead, the
university came to us!”
It’s a neat phrase, but above all it opens up an
infinite range of possibilities. The trip has
finally convinced us: not only does the reality
on the ground match up with the idea, but
each continues to enhance the other.
Two hundred BKs have been
set up in Venezuela over the
last ten years
The success of the Bankomunales is unquestionable. They owe their success, of course, to
Elsa Guacaran, to Alfredo Real and to the
young Francelys Cabello; but also to Yohan
Vicent, to Gianfranco, to the Narvaez sisters…
and to the thousands of socios who believed in
a great idea and made it grow. And to Diana
Vilera, naturally, who supports the project with
all her heart. But to be utterly and completely
honest, you need to have met Salomon Raydan
and listened to him at length. That’s when you
really appreciate the scale of the phenomenon.
Two hundred Bankomunales have been set up
in Venezuela in ten years, and identical projects
are underway in Senegal, Spain, Bolivia, Brazil
and Colombia. It’s still not enough, as he
himself admits, but it’s already the measure of a
success that you suspect will be contagious:
“Here, in a country where the official line is that
profit is the devil, the experience of the Bankomunales represents a huge shift in attitudes.”
Salomon Raydan’s initiative is a serious
subject. It demonstrates—as if it were still
necessary—that “third-generation” capitalism
is underway. After the industrial era and then
the financial era, it’s now the people’s era.
This “human capitalism” is shifting the traditional socio-economic boundaries: there is
increasing porosity between small and large
sums of capital. This is the theory propounded
by the economist Amartya Sen, advocating
“human development”, which introduces the
notion of ethics into the economic debate, and
challenging the traditional model, which
posits personal interest as the primary motivation for human activities. It is what another
economist, Muhammad Yunus, brought to life
with the Grameen Bank. They have one other
thing in common: both were awarded the
Nobel Prize for their actions and research. It is
not an aspiration shared by the pragmatic
Salomon Raydan. “I’m a social entrepreneur,”
he tells us simply. “We develop models that
communities can use. The traditional banking
system is only relevant to around 20% of the
world’s population. Other people have financial needs too, but less sophisticated ones than
those of the current banks.” So how do you
manage hundreds of “banks” on three continents with a team of just a few people? “There’s
no obligation to swear allegiance to Fundefir.
No.17
The Bankomunales are designed to be autonomous. That said, we are trying to put in place a
centralised management system using computerised tools. Above all, I’m thinking about a
system of Bankomunales banks that could help
the surplus supply to grow. Social problems are
too great, you know, to apply small solutions.”
Night slowly falls over Caracas. The rain has
stopped and the Friday night scramble is starting to paralyse the endless motorway that crosses the city. Soon, the queue of traffic will be
nothing more than a long yellow and red ribbon
cutting the darkness in two. A tide of gold and
light and a glowing horizon… Another one. n
Marc Roussel
1- Fundacion de financiamiento rural.
2- Nobel Peace Prize 2006, inventor of microcredit
and creator of the Grameen Bank.
3- One euro was worth four bolivars at the official
exchange rate in the summer of 2009, and at least twice
that on the black market, which is used as a reference
most of the time.
4- Economic capital of the island of Margarita.
49
Jean-Houdremont
Cultural Centre,
La Courneuve, France.
From one vinyl to
another—hip-hop—,
the DJ invents new
movements and
new sounds.
A hip-hop world
Hip-hop: this “intelligent movement”(1) born of bitumen and concrete has been exciting
young people around the world for 40 years. It features regularly on the picture rails
of art galleries and is included in the canon of “official art”, but has nonetheless retained
its nefarious reputation. An insight into an undisputedly anti-establishment, multifaceted
yet unifying trend… that’s brimful of energy!
H
ip-hop: its bouncy, striking name is an
accurate reflection of a movement that
resists any attempt to define it simplistically. The
paradoxical nature of this multifaceted culture
that came out of the Bronx in the 1970s shifts
between the two syllables to find its balance.
Hip-hop mythology has happily adopted Afrika
Bambaataa, a reformed gang leader who wanted
to turn the violence of the ghettos into positive
energy, as one of its founding fathers. Bambaataa
founded Zulu Nation, which preaches creativity
and tolerance, to heal the divide between rival
gangs. His weapons: a motto—peace, unity, love
and having fun—and a sound system. The no-go
area of the ghetto became a venue for improvised festive gatherings: a Master of Ceremonies
(MC) warmed up the audience and introduced
50
the musicians, the disc jockeys (DJs) who took
over from each other at the turntables. These
“block parties” were the preserve of marginalised young people, bringing them together and
galvanising them into action: “Hip-hop began
because all these guys didn’t have the money to
buy instruments. So they said ‘To hell with it,
we’ll just have to get a couple of turntables and
play records’.”(2)
In the same way, teenagers found a way of making the city their own with just a marker pen and
a can of spray paint, hiding their identities
behind a nickname and a street number. Signatures such as Taki 183, Julio 204 and Joe 182
were soon found all over the streets of New York
and on the city’s subway; later, others would
paint over them with gigantic frescoes that
No.17
exploded with colour. Living on the breadline
brings out people’s ingenuity: you use every
resource you can to exist as an artist. Even the
human body becomes an instrument to be
stretched to breaking-point in previously
unheard-of ways: whilst “beat boxing” turns the
human mouth into a drum machine, “break
dancing” uses the ground to create a syncopated
summary of every kind of body language, a combination of dance, mime, acrobatics, sporting
prowess and other physical forms.
An aesthetics of challenge and
pushing yourself to the limit
Noise and anger fade beneath the music,
rhythms and movement, but never disappear
completely. The energy they generate is perhaps
Man Spinning
© André Lejarre/le bar floréal
THE ENERGY
TO CREATE
© Nicolas Ferrando/Corbis
Around Street Light (top).
Young Man
Breakdancing, Berlin.
Break dancing: a burst of
physical energy (bottom).
the single distinguishing feature of a culture that
has infiltrated all areas of artistic endeavour at
the same time. For journalist Mouloud Achour,
the essence of hip-hop lies in the drive to
“escape”: “For me, a skater taking off is the epitome of hip-hop culture: something that begins on
the ground and then in one movement soars into
the air. A breaker [break dancer] will always defy
gravity and a rapper will always talk about their
day-to-day life as a way of escaping from it. The
hip-hop artist is always looking in another direction, but they have a deep-rooted sense of where
they’ve come from.”
A springboard to somewhere else: the movement
has made boldness and performance a creative
force that seems to know no bounds. As with
dance, which hip-hop has embraced not only
through break dancing but also through more
“upright” forms such as “popping”, “boogaloo”
and “locking”, it is the inventiveness of DJs and
MCs that has revolutionised the musical genre.
DJs use a range of manual and technological
methods such as “scratching”, “mixing” and
“sampling” to create new sounds and enhance
existing pieces of music. As a result, hip-hop
music has become—along with techno music—
“the first form of expression to make systematic
use of the most advanced sound reproduction
techniques, not only to play work that has already
been produced but also to create something new,
in terms of both form and content,” explains
Christian Béthune in Le rap. Une esthétique hors
la loi. But “whilst techno music lays claim to the
aesthetic choice of a mechanical world characterised by a systematic linearity of rhythm, which is
stripped as far as possible of any trace of human
intervention, rap relies on the random circularity
of its tempo to humanise the machine in a poetic
system that is based on the idea of breaking away.”
A system also found in swinging, which jazz had
already made its trademark.
Heir to the “free jazz” of the Last Poets, the “soul
rap” created by the “preachers” and the “rocksteady” and reggae invented by the Jamaicans in
the 1960s (which were themselves reinterpretations of rhythm’n’blues)—not to mention its various Latin American influences and wholesale
adoption of cutting-edge technologies—, rap (an
acronym for “rhythm and poetry”) was from the
outset part of a positive approach to poetry that
transformed popular speech with a rhythmic
pattern of syllabic stress. According to Christian
Béthune, “the vigour of the scansion, and quality
of the flow, the pure resonance of the words and
the collisions between them” all compete in a
form of expression in which Michel Jourde, professor of literature at the École normale
supérieure in Lyon, recognises “the French language at its most beautiful.” Whilst on the one
hand, this inexhaustible eloquence is fed by
influences from the past and elsewhere, on the
other, the frenzy for teaching themselves new
things shared by its practitioners confirms its
originality and authenticity.
As for graffiti (which should not be confused
with the tag, the initial form of the graff and a
simple signature), it is a complex and elaborate
art form, representing various people and lettering with tremendous attention to detail. Graffiti
is a pictorial form that ranges from simple
sketches to whole frescoes (known as “masterpieces”), distinguished by a proliferation of artistic styles and techniques (stencilling, engraving,
painting with spray cans, rollers, brushes etc.),
always with a focus on the distinctive character
of the line, shape and motif. Driven by the desire
to emulate and constrained by the difficult and
dangerous conditions in which they work, graffiti artists have developed a true poetics of
urgency, supported by technical excellence.
“Everything is highly codified,” emphasises Delphine Le Goff, who works in a contemporary art
gallery. “Every piece of graffiti is assessed not only
in terms of style, but also in terms of its medium
(walls, trains, lorries, street furniture, etc.) and
size (on a train, for example, it all depends on
whether it’s a whole car or just a section)… These
are the criteria graffiti artists use to organise their
own honours list.”
Challenge and competition are endemic in hiphop, culture. Dance “battles”, freestyle rap
“clashes”, contests between DJs and graffiti competitions: the leading lights of the movement
enjoy combining artistic creation and sporting
performance in these events that effectively act
as election ceremonies. Above all, hip-hop is
about being recognised by one’s peers. A community approach that relies on a number q
No.17
© julia Grossi/Corbis
51
Graffiti is part of city life. Paradoxically,
this illegal art enabled the hip-hop culture to be
worthy of display in museums instead of staying
underground.
Le Cinématophone, 1998. A curious
“electro-lyrical” procession by Oposito.
Interview
with Jean-Raymond Jacob
© rue des archives
Whilst it is an “initiatory” and “community”
movement, hip-hop is nonetheless universal.
Brought to Europe in the early 1980s following a
Ghost Dog: The Way
of the Samurai,
Jim Jarmusch, 1999.
The unique sound of
hip-hop rapidly won over
the world of cinema.
52
No.17
targeted at mothers that started in Harlem and,
under the name of “Your mother” triumphantly
crossed the Atlantic.
Dissent also comes up in the refusal of rappers to
separate art and fun, striking a blow at several
centuries of aesthetic ideology based on pure art
and disinterested beauty. In Christian Béthune’s
view, “by consciously comparing artistic performance and sporting prowess,” rap “reintroduces the
spectre of “adherent beauty” to art (i.e. beauty
which is not longer exclusively associated with disinterested pleasure engendered by beauty itself)
that Kantian aesthetics had tried to remove from
the field of art.” Another of hip-hop’s subversive
practices is in the same vein: a critical recycling
of official musical culture. True to the principle
of “Do it yourself”, the DJ speeds up or interrupts the playing of the record, giving their raw
material, mass culture, a rough ride in the creative act. Chaotic cuts and scratches, polyphonic
mixes and the use of the sampler thus create an
aesthetics of rebellion based on plundering and
corruption.
A transgressive approach to art, then, which at
times toys with breaking down social taboos as
well. In fact, counter-culture and delinquency
are bound up with each other in the AfricanAmerican imagination, which is built on the
foundations of slavery and in which the slightest
attempt to access culture was in itself seen as an
outlawed activity: “The oral vernacular tradition
teems with negative heroes, whose motivation to
act seems to be about breaking the rules for its
own sake,” recalls Christian Béthune. “The killer
and the pimp, who are important figures in many
raps, are simply contemporary reinterpretations of
key figures from an oral tradition that still resonates.” This is provocative imagery which, obligingly distilled by the cultural industry, can lead
to all kinds of misinterpretation: “Detached from
its literary environment and taken at face
q
Why leave the stage and take to the
streets when other artists, cutting
their teeth in the street, dream of being
on stage?
Because the street is where you find more
fantasy and freedom. The street is an
unbelievable terrain of adventure: whether
your name is Oposito, Royal Deluxe
or Generik Vapeur, we have all trodden the
boulevards the world over and still never know
what to expect. I love crossing through towns,
by definition things in movement, not just
because I come from a generation of carnivals
and parades, but also because I like things
that appear and disappear, quite simply.
What are the origins and influences
of street performance?
Its origins go back to the first anti-Vietnam
War demonstrations in the United States,
when the Bread and Puppet theatre decided
to take their giant effigies into the streets and
lead the protest marches. It also originated in
Spain: Franco was gone, Spain was free and
the artists went straight out into the streets.
That’s when young French artists started to
take an interest in the genre and within a few
decades France had become the biggest
importer and exporter of street theatre in the
world. Not because we were better than
anyone else, but because we are blessed with
some unique gifts, which came about through
the privileged relationship artists have enjoyed
with France’s political powers since the time
of the king and the court jester.
What is the spectator’s place in theatre
“beyond the walls”?
Not only do street spectators engage their
body, like the actors, they are mechanical
parts of the movement which the production
needs to incorporate. So barriers between
Oposito’s audience and its moving
performances are pointless because in a way
the audience acts as protection. The public in
towns is extremely mature and, despite
popular belief, there is a collective sense of
responsibility. It respects its members, but is
also capable of managing itself: there has
never been an incident at any of our
Rencontres d’ici et d’ailleurs festivals, where,
for the past 19 years, we have played to
between five and ten thousand people in
Noisy-le-Sec, in the Paris suburbs. It’s also
the variety of the crowd that creates this
“pacifying” effect. Unlike the audience in
theatres, bound by a certain format, a form
of kinship, the audience in the street is a
reflection of the town’s population in all its
diversity.
our dreams, the people and the companies
who cross our path and who we invite in turn
to perform in our hometown. Hence the name
of the festival: “Home and away encounters”.
They are a way to take a different look at the
everyday life of the town. I love the term
“poetic holdups” coined by Pierre Berthelot
from the company Generik Vapeur who
described street theatre as the «crowbar
of art”. Having said that, if we are
“aggressive”, it’s always for the sake of peace,
art, harmony and beauty. n
What relationship does street theatre
establish with the town?
It’s exactly the same type of relationship you
establish with a person: when you arrive at
someone’s home, you knock, say hello, listen
before you speak… If for a show you need to
block off a road, it’s like cutting off the blood
supply; if you change something (like move
a bus shelter), you provoke a reaction from
the people that live there. All this requires
preparation, educating the citizens.
Like any living thing, the public space has
a “personality”: if you come along and change
the personality of the place for the duration
of a show, it’s important this is a positive thing
for the political and social life of the town
you’re passing through.
So what role does the Rencontres d’ici
et d’ailleurs festival play in Noisy-le-Sec?
It’s our anchor point in the town: it’s the way
Oposito contributes to the life of the town,
sharing the stories from our tours, our travels,
No.17
nie Opos
ito
A unifying “counter culture”…
tour by Afrika Bambaataa, it easily gained a foothold in France’s suburban estates, which found a
common language and shared project in a frontier culture of synthesis. As soon as the movement first appeared, Jeronimo Saer, then known
as “Phonk”, founded one of the first French rap
collectives: Département E. Unlike American
communitarianism, French-style hip-hop is a
cultural melting pot, where “Blacks, whites,
North Africans, the middle classes and guys from
the estates” live alongside each other.
Wherever they come from, everyone finds themselves caught up in this intrinsically transgressive
process that defies the prevailing culture. Hiphop’s first target is standard language. Rap
rejoices in slang and provocative language, shifting meanings and word plays of all kinds, determinedly focusing in on a kind of linguistic
lawlessness. Its radical use of language and free
manipulation of speech are primarily derived
from the African-American tradition of the
“Dirty Dozen”, a reciprocal exchange of insults
Interview by Laure Becdelièvre
© Compag
of codes (a “patois” such as AfricanAmerican slang or the verlan (back slang) of
France’s suburban estates; pseudonyms; a particular style of drawing, etc.) that are renegotiated on an ongoing basis as competition brings
them back into play. But recognition has to come
from the outside too: by asserting themselves
through performance and their furious determination to speak, dance or paint, these artists are
also asserting their very existence, which has
been hidden for too long. Hence the claim by
the French rapper and slam poet Abd Al Malik:
“I was nothing, or something that was pretty close
to nothing,/I was empty and so were my pockets./
[…] I was dead and you brought me back to life:/I
used to say “I have, or I don’t have”; you taught me
to say “I am”. (L’Alchimiste) [The Alchemist]
q
For over 20 years, street theatre company Oposito has acted out
its policy to “re-enchant the city” across the planet, mixing
people and genres, telling stories to towns and cities and, with
them, creating new ones. Interview with Jean-Raymond Jacob,
one of the artistic directors.
© Compagnie Oposito-Christophe Pertin
© Jean-noël Lafargue
Art “beyond the walls”
Grandmaster Flash,
The Venue, London, 1982.
One of the pioneers
of hip-hop music.
create
A hip-hop
world
Some issues also available in French, Spanish
and Chinese
© CORIO/ DALLE
q
… or a new “popular” culture?
Visibility in the media, commercial success and
the institutionalisation that inevitably follows
bring with them their own batch of paradoxes.
Firstly, how do you fall into line and move from
the street to the stage without losing your authenticity? “There has always been a very complex
relationship between the institution and the hiphop movement, which doesn’t need an institutional framework to find new ideas and develop,”
observes Rebecca Bouillou, manager at the WIP
Villette (3). A relationship that could even be
described as paradoxical when the institution
begins to take in art forms seen as beyond the
pale: “The Grand Palais has even, in the work of
Dran, showcased the biggest vandal in France,”
notes Delphine Le Goff with amusement.
Another stumbling block is the appropriation of
the movement by commercial interests, of which
rap was the first victim in the 1990s. As a result
of playing on the cliché of the loud-mouthed,
upstart rapper (the “bad boy” draped in shiny
gold chains and ready to “spice things up a bit”)
to sell records to teenagers looking for a thrill, or
riding on a wave of popular music likely to appeal
to the widest possible audience, rap has, according to many detractors, “lost its soul”. “In the
past, rap drew people together around the need to
rebel; today, it brings people together around the
54
T h e T ota l G r o u p ’ s e x t e r na l ma g a z i n e
Energies is circulated to political and economic
decision-makers, the Group’s partners, existing
and prospective customers, financial analysts,
shareholders and journalists.
IAM. The rap group from Marseille
epitomised French multiethnic
hip-hop in the 1990s.
Subscriptions
Dominique Marchal
fax: +33 (0) 1 47 44 48 75
Contact us
holding.energies@total.com
Find
© Almodovar/ DALLE
Energies on
www.total.com
need to consume,” laments Mouloud Achour.
And in 2007 the rapper Nas was moved to declare
explicitly “Hip-hop is dead”. Whilst it would be
wrong to reduce the whole of the movement to
such a caricatural trend, it is the only one that
attracts media attention and therefore tends to
overshadow any others, giving hip-hop an essentially negative image. To the extent that in
France, which is more demanding than the
United States in this respect, rap no longer sells.
That said, many artists are still working on ensuring that hip-hop continues to thrive all round
the world: “You have to draw a distinction between
what’s just pure commercialism, where hip-hop
has really lost its way, and the artistic value of
those who get off the beaten track and constantly
try out new ideas. From this point of view, hip-hop
dance has a promising future ahead of it: more
and more companies are keen to embrace other
artistic disciplines and attract different audiences.” “It’s also the reason why a number of rappers quickly turned to slam, which offered them
slightly less elaborate and more poetic forms that
had more to do with protest,” notes Marie-France
Ponczner, another manager at WIP Villette.
Combining verbal experimentation, music and
dramatisation, contemporary poetry is reconnecting with the oral traditions it grew out of to
incorporate the discoveries made by hip-hop:
using a sampler for a pen, its authors have
replaced public readings with performances that
No.17
draw on a world that is new in visuals, sounds
and movements. But hip-hop music is not to be
outdone: in his new album, Machine Gum,
Jeronimo Saer includes one track, Spray can
dance, which consists solely of noises made by
marker pens and spray cans: a homage in the
direction of the historic Spraycan Art, by Henry
Chalfant and James Prigoff, the first book to
present graffiti as an art form, and which serves
as a tribute to the energy of hip-hop in all its
forms. n
Other corporate publications
Activity
Report
Social and
Environmental Report
Energies
China No.6
拓展
•
洞察
•
分享
•
解析
•
发现
•
创造
China•nO.6
value, this justification of violence and
breaking social taboos can be disastrous, insofar
as it prompts negative forms of identification.”
In the case of graffiti art, however, which is
seen by the law as damage and therefore a
crime, the transgression is real. But it still
retains some of its symbolic force: frequently
classed as “visual pollution”, graffiti “strikes at
our idea of cleanliness as much as does our
instincts about property ownership,” notes Alain
Milon in L’Étranger dans la ville. Du rap au
graff mural. In either case, it is always about
defying the social order. But it is this ambiguity
itself that interests the protagonists of hip-hop:
by in some sense “invading” the sound and visual environment of the city, they claim a role as
urban “warning signals”, the spokespersons of a
social malaise, as much as artistic or personal
recognition.
Energies collection
汽车：
无声的革命
市场、法规、动力、理念：超越当前的经
济衰退，实现可持续机动性的目标，要靠
一系列缓慢而又深刻的变革。
对前景的展望。
Laure Becdelièvre
No.17 - Winter 2010
1- Cf. rapper KRS One (Hip Hop Lives).
2- S. H. Fernando Jr., The new Beats (cited
by Christian Béthune in Le rap. Une esthétique
hors la loi, 1999).
3- An extension of the “Rencontres de la Villette” into
a permanent venaue dedicated to urban and marginal
cultures, the WIP Villette (for Work in progress)
will open on 3 February 2010. It will help to support
companies that want to try out new ideas in research
and creative work.
Published by Total’s Corporate Communications Division.
Publisher: Yves-Marie Dalibard
Assistant Publisher: Pierre-Gautier Caloni
Editor-in-Chief: Marie Le Breton
Editor: Fouez Balit
Translator: Justin Hillier, Lexcelera, Graham Lord
Produced by:
Contributors to this issue: Laure Mentzel, Gabriel Joseph-Dezaize
and Jean-Baptiste Scieux.
Printed by: Deckers. Copyright: 1st quarter 2010.
Circulation: 80,000 copies. N° ISSN: 0990-6150.
No material published in this issue may be reprinted without Total’s approval.
Total S.A. – Share capital: 5,867,520,185 euros.
Head office: 2, place Jean Millier – 92078 Paris La Défense.
542 051 180 Registered Nanterre (France).
No.17
55

FraNce, here aNd there

Transcription

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