Meet Dimitri Lafleur

Dimitri Lafleur is our Chief Scientist. He supports our analysis of company climate plans, with a deep understanding of GHG emissions, energy markets and climate science. After an 11 year career as a geoscientist in the oil and gas industry, he resigned from Shell to complete a PhD on climate change and energy transition.

“While I was working with Shell, they laughed at the idea that they would be playing a role in the electricity sector. I was told that while the problem was well understood, Shell was not going to spend money on this "in the next fifteen years" since oil and gas was more profitable. That was the moment I decided that I was not going to spend the next fifteen years working on the development of gas fields.” he said.

When asked what motivates Dimitri professionally, he described the injustice of the impact to those who have had no stake in creating this problem and the idea that humankind has the ability to destroy its own habitat.

“Both drive me to work harder to prevent that from happening, fully knowing that the implementation of solutions is not simple. We all have to try harder to make the just, but very difficult, decisions.”  he said.

Dimitri joined the ACCR team in September 2021. He gets a real sense of purpose from providing tools for investors, the general public, stakeholders in general so they can use that in the most impactful way.

“For me personally, providing analysis and information around climate and energy is what I do well. I have a lot of time for people who want to learn about climate and energy, about climate science and intricacies of certain energies, and for those who want to understand why solutions are not simple.” he said.

Dimitri also believes ACCR is a catalyst for systemic change. With more people working on climate action, the more chance we have that we will find all the elements to a solution that minimises harm.

“ACCR has the ability to nudge one cog, and even a few cogs, in a system of cogwheels that move towards sustainable futures. We empower others to nudge other cogwheels, which, added all together, lead to the change that is required.” he said.

Listen to Dimitri speak about his experience in this Bloomberg podcast - Zero