18 November 2023

10:25 – 11:10

Amphithéâtre Faure

Cédric Philibert

Cédric Philibert is an energy and climate analyst, focusing on renewables in transport and industry, electrification and hydrogen. He is a research associate at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI) and the Australian National University (ANU). He teaches at Sciences-Po Paris. His most recent book: Eoliennes pourquoi tant de haine? Les Petits Matins/Institut Veblen, March 2023. He worked for 20 years at the International Energy Agency (IEA) on climate change policy and renewable energy technologies. He has authored numerous IEA publications such as Beyond Kyoto (2002, with J. Pershing), the solar, wind and hydropower technology roadmaps, Solar Energy Perspectives (2011), and Renewable Energy for Industry (2017). Mr. Philibert began his career as a journalist, advising the French Minister of the Environment (1988-1990). From 1992 to 1998, he advised the Director General of the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME). A graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Grenoble, Mr. Philibert has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and other newspapers, and contributed to numerous books and reports. In 1990 he published two books on climate change and renewable energies.

Conference: Electrifying everything?

Wind and photovoltaic energies have seen their co√ªts plummet in ten years, as have batteries. Their potential far exceeds our needs, and their deployment is accelerating. It is much faster than that of non-electric renewable energies, whose potential is much lower. But electricity currently accounts for only 20% of the world’s final energy consumption. To rapidly decarbonize the global economy, we need to drive out the fuels used in buildings, industry and transport, and replace them with electricity from the sun and wind. In other words, electrify almost everything. Climate change mitigation scenarios predict that by 2050, electricity will account for at least half of final energy consumption. But it’s difficult to electrify ocean-going ships and aircraft, and to store electricity to cope with windless winter days. Indirect electrification via hydrogen will provide the necessary complements. Sun and wind are variable energies. Won’t it be more difficult to integrate them into power grids, if we want to electrify (almost) everything at once? Conversely, new uses for electricity will bring new flexibilities, facilitating the integration of variable energies into the grid.