Dr. Piccard comes from a legendary lineage of scientists who conquered from the heights of the stratosphere to the ocean’s depths. Bertrand Piccard made history by achieving two major feats in aviation: the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight, and more recently, a solar-powered flight without fuel. A psychiatrist, explorer, and... Read more
Dr. Piccard comes from a legendary lineage of scientists who conquered from the heights of the stratosphere to the ocean’s depths. Bertrand Piccard made history by achieving two major feats in aviation: the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight, and more recently, a solar-powered flight without fuel.
A psychiatrist, explorer, and influential thought leader, Bertrand Piccard rethinks our relationship with innovation and the environment. A pioneer in viewing ecology through the lens of economic feasibility, he has been denouncing since the early 2000s the absurdity of polluting and inefficient systems that are still widely used today. Convinced that protecting nature should be a driver of prosperity, this former United Nations Environment Programme Goodwill Ambassador promotes a solutions-focused, unifying and positive approach to ecology. He advocates for a third way, that of a “qualitative economy”, which goes beyond the sterile divide between limitless growth and utopian degrowth.
Drawing on the 1,900 concrete solutions already identified by his Solar Impulse Foundation, he urges political and industrial leaders to pursue bold environmental action, to modernise infrastructure, legislation and business models by harnessing the tremendous potential of efficiency, cleantech, and renewable energy.
His new project — a non-stop, zero-emission round-the-world flight aboard Climate Impulse, a green hydrogen-powered aircraft — is part of this ongoing quest to explore new solutions that combine progress, sustainability, and quality of life.