Myrto Tripathi is an energy-transition specialist, particularly interested in the role of nuclear energy in the fight against climate change. Since 2018, she is the president and founder of two European NGOs The Voices of Nuclear and RePlanet France and sits on the board of the RePlanet Alliance. Her objective through these organizations is to actively promote the use of science and technology to simultaneously address the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and human development.
Prior to this, Myrto had 10 years of experience in the nuclear industry, in strategy and sales roles, including as EPR Offer Director in charge of managing and leading the nuclear reactor’s export negotiations. In 2015, she decided to join the UN Global Compact to participate, as Climate Policy Director, in the negotiations of the Paris Agreement and for 3 years participated in the different COPs, working on topics as varied as business involvement in climate negotiations and pathways, global mapping of the pollution of the environment, or deforestation and aviation carbon footprint reduction.
She holds two degrees in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University and in business management from HEC Paris. She is the author of La Bataille pour le Climat (Battle for Climate) published by Genèse Edition in 2020. She also teaches at Science Po Paris, France’s top public affairs higher education school, and makes regular interventions in the media.
Abstract
The European Nuclear Debate
How nuclear is handled in the European public debate may be one of the most brutal side effects of a subtle backfire of science aura. Challenging the accepted superiority of science could be the best way to promote it.
The European “Nuclear Debate” is as cultural, as it is (geo)political, as diverse as the Member states that sometimes seem to have only democracy in common. But there is one common trait that can be found in all European countries: the relationship we Europeans entertain with engineering and communication, as compared to science. Maybe because our relationship to science is an ancient and intellectual one, it seems science has achieved a level of aura in the population that has major consequences on the place of science amongst them.