Vice-Chairman of ENGIE Group, in charge of research and innovation
Jordi Badosa
Technical director of the interdisciplinary Energy4Climate centre in the Dynamic Meteorology Laboratory (LMD) at Ecole Polytechnique (IP Paris)
Key takeaways
The urgency of climate change requires simultaneous developments on a range of technical solutions, which we will have to combine to decarbonise emissions.
Encouraging energy sufficiency, developing renewable energies, and capturing atmospheric CO2 are amongst the many possible avenues.
France is the 3rd largest producer of solar energy, but it currently accounts for just 3% of French energy consumption.
If photovoltaic energy is to be deployed on a massive scale, new, more efficient panels that are 90% recyclable will need to be installed in a variety of locations.
Promising new options are being explored, including the installation of panels on lakes and agri-voltaics.
PhD student at the Centre for Management Research (I³-CRG*) at École Polytechnique (IP Paris)
Key takeaways
Biomethane production emits biogenic CO2 and residual methane, the latter contributing to global warming.
To reduce this environmental impact, French regulations require plants to limit their methane emissions to between 0.5% and 1% by 2025.
Purifying biogenic CO2 could help to reduce methane emissions: it can be used in a variety of ways to promote a circular economy.
Biogenic CO2 can be used in fields as varied as the food industry and medicine.
Offering biogenic CO2 at a competitive price while improving the logistics and cost of capture technologies could make it a substitute for CO2 of fossil origin.
Lecturer at IFP School and Research Associate at Chaire Énergie & Prospérité
Key takeaways
The energy transition is currently being hampered by the synergy between fossil and low carbon energy systems.
The transition we need to make will have to be absolute and rapid, which means building a considerable number of infrastructures based on renewables.
This should be accompanied by a return to material constraints and an awareness of planetary limits.
Green hydrogen is promising but would require a quantitative increase in production to reach the target of 500 million tonnes/year by 2050.
The efforts required are comparable to those of a war economy, although the use of this term is misleading, as it implies that the effort will be short-lived.
Preparing for the paradigm shift imposed by ecological transformation is essential.
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