The myths of energy transition

Jean Baptiste-Fressoz has written one of the most important books on the challenge of global climate change, laying bare the self-serving and utterly cynical deflection of the climate discourse towards artfully calculated obfuscation and conjuring up a future of abundance decoupled from fossil fuel-based energy.

- SHYAM SARAN

This is a damning expose of governments and corporations, in particular the powerful fossil fuel conglomerates, from the developed, industrialised world that have adopted the rhetoric of a green future while reinforcing the entrenched underpinnings of the carbon economy. In a brief review it is impossible to capture the wealth of compelling data and historical perspective that the author deploys to support his analysis and conclusions but one will try to present his key findings.

The author rejects the notion of "energy transition", which posits a historical, stageby-stage shift from wood to coal to oil and natural gas, each more efficient and "cleaner" than the previous main source of energy. The inevitability of the next stage -anon-fossil future based on renewable and clean sources of energy-is presented as the promise of environmentally sustainable development. The book demonstrates the phenomenon of "energy symbiosis" rather than energy transition, pointing out that historically, at each stage the consumption of the fuel category ofthe previous stage has increased together with the newer fuel source.