Étienne Espagne is an environmental and development economist. His research programs focus on the socioeconomic impacts of climate change and strategies for adaptation and attenuation adopted by emerging and developing countries in regions including Southeast Asia.
Examples include the GEMMES Vietnam program and the Inequality Research Facility in the Lower Mekong countries. More generally, Espagne’s work looks at financial policies designed to promote a resilient, low-carbon transition, following the signing of the Paris Agreement.
Étienne Espagne holds a PhD in environmental economics from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and is also a graduate of Mines ParisTech and the Paris School of Economics.
He has published in a variety of academic journals on topics related to climate change and energy policy. He regularly teaches classes at Université Paris 1, EHESS, École Polytechnique, and ENSTA Paris.
Before joining AFD in 2017, he worked for the Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Information Internationale (CEPII), France Stratégie, and the Centre International de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Développement (CIRED).
Étienne Espagne
Environmental and Development Economist at AFD
3 published articles
Analysis
The urgent need to incorporate biodiversity into development trajectories
Ten days after the end of the IUCN World Conservation Congress, it is useful to consider the lessons learned with regard to anticipating changes in the financial sector and the development world. In particular, escaping from poverty seems to be incompatible with the world’s current trajectory...
Analysis
How could Africa finance its development in a climate change context?
Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to the effects of climate change. Against the backdrop of the international COVID-19 crisis, it is facing particularly tough choices in trying to finance resilient, decarbonized development. Review of possible levers.
Analysis
Inequalities and environmental damage: the case of the Mekong River Basin
The Covid-19 crisis highlights the extent to which destruction of the environment contributes to inequalities in terms of healthcare and socioeconomic indicators. It also shows how these inequalities are a major obstacle to ecological reconstruction. Here is an illustration with the Lower Mekong...