Gilles Lepesant, research director at CNRS / Géographie-cités, has published a chapter entitled Entre défis de sécurité et ambitions climatiques, l’affirmation d’une Union européenne de l’énergie in a special issue of L’Information Géographique (1/2024) devoted to territorial dynamics in the European Union.
The energy sector is one of those that has experienced the most significant advances in European integration, with developments related to market opening, interconnections between member states, and the climate challenge based on a regulatory framework that has been significantly expanded. However, the order of priorities has evolved. The European Directives of the 90s, focused on opening markets to competition and interconnexions between member states, have gradually been supplemented by initiatives aimed at reducing the continent’s dependence and decarbonizing energy mixes. Far from being shelved after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ambitions set out in the Green Deal adopted in 2019 to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 have been heightened. Nevertheless, the high cost of the ongoing transformation, the risks it poses for certain industrial territories, and the lack of social acceptance now constitute the main factors of uncertainty.
Gilles Lepesant is Senior researcher at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/National Center for Scientific Research) in geography and Associate fellow at Centre Marc Bloch (Berlin) and at the Asian Energy Studies Centre (Hong Kong Baptist University). The research focuses on the design and challenges of the various European Union policies involved in the roll out of the energy transition and in territorial energy strategies (cities, regions, ports). The implementation of these policies by the Member States is investigated mainly through the case of Germany.
Most recent projects:
• 2020-2023: “Adaptation of cities and regions to climate change. Case studies in Europe”. Project co-financed by CDC (Caisse des dépôts et consignations, Paris). In charge of the chapters dedicated to the EU policy and to case studies in Germany, Spain and Netherlands.
• 2017-2019. Structuring of the value-chains of the renewable energy industry : case studies across Europe. Project co-financed by CDC (Caisse des dépôts et consignations, Paris).
Last publication:
Gilles Lepesant (2022), Géographies des énergies, l’Europe dans le nouvel équilibre mondial, Éditions Hermann, Paris.
