Abstract
" Our house is burning down and we're looking the other way. Nature, mutilated, overexploited, can no longer replenish itself, and we refuse to admit it. " This extract from Jacques Chirac's speech at the IVth Earth Summit, in 2002, is strikingly true today. The last sentence of his speech, " theinvention of sustainable development is a fundamental advance in which we must place the advances of science and technology at the service of the precautionary principle ", will be the thread I propose to share with you in 2026 as part of the Avenir Commun Durable chair. We'll be showing how " solutions based on nature " can be a source of reflection, but also of concrete solutions to the collapse of biodiversity. These solutions come under the heading of global ecology, and are based on research into phytotechnologies that can protect/conserve, or even restore, degraded and polluted ecosystems, with operational objectives assumed on the ground and on a large scale. These phytotechnologies include phytoremediation, phytosorption and eco-responsible management to control the proliferation of invasive exotic species.
A better understanding of the plant species studied revealed a common feature : they all have an unusual mineral composition, which was the starting point for a new concept, ecocatalysis. While ecocatalysis is the cornerstone of sustainable development, the bioinspired use of these ecocatalysts has enabled the synthesis of molecules with significant social impact in the fields of fine chemistry, health and well-being.
The field integrates a level of requirement rarely reached at the interface of sustainable chemistry and ecological solutions to protect biodiversity. This opening lecture, like the lessons to follow, is a message of hope based on recent scientific research findings.
