Sans transition: Une nouvelle histoire de l’énergie

2024 offered a highly controversial start to the energy debate in France. On the front page of the new book by science historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, the following announcement appears in capital letters: THE ENERGY TRANSITION WILL NOT HAPPEN.Unsurprisingly, in a country where debating is a national sport, the publication of this book ignited heated discussions and earned its author front-page coverage in mainstream media. The author was harshly criticized in many quarters for this banner on the book’s cover.Six renowned intellectuals published a collective letter in Le Monde on January 22, 2024. They wrote: “This ecological declinism is not only largely unfounded, but also likely to undermine ambitions in the fight against climate change. Asserting that the transition is impossible is the best way to ensure that it never happens.”So, what does Fressoz say in his book that shocks so many people?He argues that the industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries did not give rise to any energy transition. The history of energy is often presented as a transition, from wood to coal, then to oil, then to gas and, more recently, to renewable energies. In short, it is history as a series of phases, with one form of energy replacing another. Fressoz says this “transitionist scheme” is wrong. The “new” does not make the “old” disappear, he argues. Fressoz draws on a wealth of data and his book includes almost 800 footnotes.