The Energy Transition - The challenges of defossilisation

Abstract

This special report on energy marks the culmination of a long-term project by the SFP’s Energy & Environment Committee. The initial impetus for the project was provided by Michel Spiro. In the editorial entitled “Physicists facing the challenge of global warming” in issue No. 55 of Reflets de la physique (October-November 2017), he already indicated the main themes in which physicists should get involved to face this global challenge of the energy transition. This transition must lead to a move away from fossil fuels, which currently account for more than 80% of primary energy resources supply worldwide and provide around 60% of our final energy consumption in France and Europe.

The scale of the challenge is immediately clear!