Rethinking the energy transition: Sufficiency and the French strategy

Abstract

La sobriété énergétique has emerged as a central theme in France's energy policy in recent years. Energy sufficiency is becoming the fourth pillar of the French energy transition, alongside energy efficiency, nuclear power generation and renewable energy. But what drives French enthusiasm for energy sufficiency—a concept that hasn't gained as much traction elsewhere in Europe or North America? This article will explore how the concept of energy sufficiency has taken such an eminent place in the public debate in France. Three reasons will be examined: 1) this is not the first time the French have used sufficiency, 2) sufficiency is in keeping with the actions of a centralizing and interventionist state responding to the last European energy crisis, and 3) sufficiency corresponds to an inflection in terms of long-term energy strategy, which we will consider as constrained by circumstance but also pragmatic.