The State in Search of an Energy and Climate Strategy
François-Mathieu Poupeau
Presses des mines, 2023, 340p.
Energy and climate have become major concerns in France, challenging the government in its role as strategist. How is it approaching this new role? How is it shaping its vision for the future? How is it setting the broad guidelines intended to respond to the challenges of combating climate change and energy transition? These questions are at the heart of this book, which examines the drafting, from 2017 to 2020, of the National Low-Carbon Strategy (SNBC) and the Multi-Year Energy Program (PPE). Based on an in-depth survey of the actors who participated in their development, it offers a unique contribution to the sociology of public administration and decision-making in a field that has yet to be extensively studied. It also identifies a little-known facet of the state's inaction on climate change: the powerlessness of the administration in charge of this issue in France. Relegated to a peripheral position in the bureaucratic hierarchy, with limited staff and resources, no real leverage for action, and little support from politicians, it is struggling to generate the momentum needed to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
François-Mathieu Poupeau presented his book at the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech during the latest edition of the RDV Science&Société (February 14, 2024).
Link to view the presentation
Interview on the website of the Agence d'informations spécialisées (AEF) (news item no. 704639, January 9, 2024)