“Saving The Planet, That's What It's All About”

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo is remaking the City of Light into a beacon of business innovation while tackling global threats like xenophobia and climate change in the most powerful way possible: locally.

- Missy Schwartz

London and Paris have been cultural and economic rivals for centuries. Now, post-Brexit, Paris is angling to replace London as Europe’s financial center. How has the dynamic between the two cities changed? It’s true that Brexit creates a new situation for London and Paris. There’s competition, but there’s also cooperation. We’re both big cities with progressive mayors. [London mayor] Sadiq Khan and I thought that there might be a way to take advantage of this situation by offering London companies the possibility of setting up in Paris and Parisian companies to do so in London—we talked about it when he came to Paris in August. Sadiq Khan is someone I admire. His plan for his city is very humanist, and I work with him frequently on pollution [issues]. This partnership is very important.