Energy Transitions in the History of Economic Thought (19th-20th c.)

Introduction

Economic ideas play a vital role in public decision-making. The energy sector is an emblematic case: competition policies (e.g. anti-trust laws, deregulation), taxation, emission permits, and sustainable-growth programmes all have origins rooted in economic reasoning.

Current Situation

Today, more than 80% of the world's primary energy comes from fossil fuel combustion, contributing strongly (75% of CO2 emissions) to climate change. To understand the historical developments that led to this situation, an in-depth examination of past economic discourses, concepts, theories, models, and policy recommendations is essential. This has not been done to date.

Project Ambition

ETRANHET's ambition is thus to write the first-ever history of energy transitions in economic thought, on a global scale. ETRANHET will analyse how economics has dealt with energy issues and transitions since the early 19th century, in diverse market-economy contexts:

1. Continental Western Europe
2. The British Isles
3. North America
4. Latin America
5. Japan

Deliberately going beyond the English-speaking literature, it will perform an unusual decentring of the history of economic thought.

Objectives

ETRANHET aims to:

• Characterise the context-dependency of past economic views of energy.
• Uncover forgotten, yet relevant, ideas that could enrich current research into the energy transition.
• Precisely determine how the economic discipline has been able to influence decision-making in energy matters.

Methodology

ETRANHET is a multidisciplinary project mobilising historiographical and science studies methods to study past economists and economic thinking. Digital humanities and archival research will be key, including the creation of electronic repositories, making new valuable material available to historians.

Contribution to Contemporary Debates

By taking a fresh look at today's challenges in relation to the low-carbon transition, ETRANHET will contribute to show that the history of ideas has a role to play in contemporary debates on sustainability.