La recherche scientifique face aux défis de l'énergie - BibSciences.org

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
“If a man does not know to what port
he is steering, no wind will be favourable”,
Seneca
This academic report is to be seen as a contribution to the ongoing debate
about energy, mainly addressed from the point of view of scientific and
industrial research that should be engaged with the aim of addressing the
successive issues that will come to a head over the next decades.
The role of science in this debate consists of identifying appropriate research
issues, to face solutions to our growing needs for energy, distinguishing the
major scientific challenges that will have to be resolved through continuous
efforts and commitments. Another aspect in the present context is that the
scientific method could enable to tackle problems with a reasoned, systematic
approach, without a priori considerations. This dual role is important at a time
when rumour spread out that we are condemned to change civilisation and that
for this purpose we would need to engage in gigantic projects, attractive in
principle but totally unrealistic in practice.
It is also clear that solutions to the energy-related issues will not be simply the
fruit of scientific investigation. Much of the innovative technical progress has its
roots in basic research, but it only reaches the market-place if the early results
are prolonged through technological and/or industrial research which are the
motors to development. In this respect, the intellectual resources, if exploited
favourably with shared dynamics, are enormous and France has many specific
assets here. Solutions to energy issues often call for a high level of trust in the
capacity to innovate and transform innovations into entrepreneurial projects.
The objectives pursued under the various policies – whether government
initiated, or put forward by industrial groups or by ardent defenders of the
environment – must firstly be clarified. Among orientations most often cited, one
can distinguish the following options:
(1) For the European Union (EU), the principal objective is to eliminate as
far as possible CO 2 emissions, to fight again climate change. In
France, the target is a reduction by a “Factor 4” of CO 2 emissions by
year 2050 (cf. the report “Energies 2050”).