The Paris 2024 Organizing Committee, led by three-time French Olympian and Olympic rowing champion Tony Estanguet, is set to sign an agreement tomorrow (May 23rd, 2018) with the aim of achieving “triple zero” by eliminating carbon emissions, poverty, and unemployment in the French capital.
Estanguet and the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee will sign the agreement alongside the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo. Also signing the agreement will be Eric Pliez, President of SAMU Social de Paris. SAMU, which has chapters in major cities across the globe, is an organization dedicated to providing emergency medical and nursing services to the homeless and other disenfranchised populations.
Mohammad Yanus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, founder of Grameen Bank, and philanthropist famous for utilizing microfinance and microloans to entrepreneurs who are too poor to get credit from traditional banks will also attend the meeting.
Paris 2024 and the other organizations signing the agreement will pledge themselves to working with social entrepreneurs and socially-responsible capitalists (think TOMS Shoes or Warby Parker Eyeglasses). The purpose of the agreement is to provide jobs for vulnerable members of the public.
Paris 2024 and the Yanus Center have already been working together since 2016 when they signed an agreement during the Olympic Bidding process. The bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games, which ultimately came down to a decision to give Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028, was characterized in many ways by each city’s willingness to involve its populace in the process, ensuring that residents of each host city actually benefit from the Games–historically, the Olympics and other major sporting events have done the opposite and retroactively harmed local economies when the events conclude.
An economic impact study done by the Centre for Law and Economics of Sports (CDES) at the University of Limoges that potentially 250,000 jobs could be created between the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with up to €10.7 in economic benefits for France. With so much work becoming available, the organizations signing this agreement are optimistic that under-represented groups will be able to find work, and after the Games, further integrate into the workforce.
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