A Fossilized Imaginary? Our Economic Representations of Energy at the Challenge of the Low-Carbon Transition

Un imaginaire fossilisé ? Les représentations économiques de l'énergie au défi de la transition bas-carbone

Antoine Missemer

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Abstract: The energy transition towards a low-carbon regime is a critical challenge for the 21st century. It is not only a matter of techniques, but also of social organization and cultural representations. This article explores how the ordinary economic representations of energy have been developed since the 19th century, and how they have influenced public decision-making. Through the examples of forecasting and of the distinction renewable vs. exhaustible resources, this article suggests that path dependencies still weight upon those views. When thinking about the low-carbon transition, getting out of these dependencies seems essential.

Keywords: energy; history of economic thought; forecasting; energy transition; path dependency; performativity; énergie; histoire de la pensée économique; prospective; transition énergétique; dépendance au sentier; performativité (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-his, nep-hme and nep-hpe
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Published in Cahiers François Viète, 2022, III (12), pp.73-94. ⟨10.4000/cahierscfv.575⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03657637

DOI: 10.4000/cahierscfv.575

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