18 November 2023

10:25 – 11:10

Amphitheatre Say

Yves Bouvier

Yves Bouvier is a historian, Professor at the University of Rouen Normandie since 2021 and researcher with the History Research Group (GRHis). His research initially focused on the history of relations between large industrial companies and the State, before turning to the history of energy, and electricity in particular. His current research focuses on the history of fuel poverty, and the history of transitions in both production and consumption.

Conference: What have we learned from past energy transitions?

At a time when injunctions to build an “ecological and inclusive transition” are becoming ever more pressing, and criticism of the slowness of current measures to meet the challenges is multiplying, a historical perspective is useful for questioning the very notion of energy transition. Are transitions merely accumulations of new energies? If there have been transitions in the past, at what pace have they taken place? How are dependencies on certain energies created? Are energy substitution policies enough to define a transition? Drawing on examples from the beginning of the industrial era, this conference aims to anchor current energy issues in a broader history of energy.