François Allain

Bio

Thesis beginning in October 2021 under the supervision of Olivier Coutard

This research examines the emergence of public carbon offset schemes at the national and local levels in France at the turn of the 2020s. A group of actors produce certification frameworks and sell and purchase carbon certificates in the agricultural and forestry sectors, which are intended to generate processes for reducing emissions or sequestering carbon dioxide in biomass. This study seeks to understand which actors and resources are involved in developing these schemes, in a context where this type of instrument has been the subject of controversy since the mid-2000s. The study is based on a qualitative method, with forty-seven semi-structured interviews, twenty-five observed meetings (participant observation) and visits to eight project sites. The study was based on a set of hypotheses tested with respondents who were selected to represent the spectrum of actors involved in these schemes: state and local government administrative services, local elected officials, intermediaries (technical, administrative and financial), businesses, farmers and forest owners. The intertwining of issues of quantification, certification and economic valuation in a context of controversy and uncertainty makes this a cross-disciplinary research topic. Using tools at the interface between the sociology of public action, the sociology of quantification and the sociology of environmental marketing, the study discusses the trade-offs made by technical forums involving public and private actors around the quantification of CO2e and biodiversity, certification and marketing. This thesis examines several dimensions through which these actors seek to restore credibility to a contested instrument: the argument of co-construction (Chapter 1), the argument of the accuracy of quantifications and the quantitative consideration of uncertainties (thresholds, discounts) in the general reference framework and sectoral methodologies (Chapter 2), the argument of moralising practices through the implementation of value charters (chapter 3) and, finally, the tool of semantic renewal (chapter 4).