Result of the Marcel Boiteux Prize 2023
PRESS RELEASE
2023 Awards for the best research in energy economics
The Association for Energy Economics (AEE) distinguishes Emmanuel Hache and Benjamin Louvet for their research in energy economics
The Association for Energy Economics awarded, Tuesday November 21, 2023, a prize rewarding a collective work directed by French authors who offer remarkable contributions to economics in the energy sector:
- The Marcel Boiteux energy economics prize is awarded to Emmanuel Hache And Benjamin Louvet for their book “ Metals, the new black gold " .
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The annual Awards were presented during the annual conference of the Association of Energy Economists.
Christophe Bonnery , President of the AEE, declared: “The Marcel Boiteux Prize of the AEE, created in 2011, was awarded by Mr. Marcel Boiteux until then Age of 100 years. The French community of energy economists lost its Honorary President this year at the age of 101 and France lost a great man. His memory was saluted by the President of the Republic , Mr Emmanuel Macron, in a special communication.
The AEE perpetuates his memory and will continue to honor every year those who produce remarkable work in energy economics.
At this time, our thoughts are with him and his loved ones. HAS"
The annual Awards were then presented at the end of the conference of the Association of Energy Economists.
Christophe Bonnery declared: “The French community of energy economists produced several publications this year which were noted by the members of our jury .
I would like to remind you that the AEE is neither a think tank nor a professional union. Like the institution to which it is affiliated, the IAEE (International Association for Energy Economics), which brings together national associations and members from 110 countries and which I... I had the honor of serving as President, it brings together academics, researchers, experts, doctoral students who propose solutions against climate change and work to promote access ¨s the energy that drives economic growth. I am particularly vigilant that the positions taken by the AEE and the IAEE are balanced and based on economic rationality. Our mission as energy economists is to contribute to the energy transition by providing constructive, critical, academic and independent opinions.
Our association, the AEE, demonstrates great vitality. Since 2015, it has been second in the world in terms of numbers in the field of economic science applied to energy, just behind the United States, after having passed the United Kingdom in 2015 and Germany in 2014. The international community knows and recognizes this dynamism of France, which is regularly cited as an example within the Council of the IAEE.
A word about the IAEE and its activities. The IAEE is first and foremost the edition of two leading scientific journals including “Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy” and the prestigious “Energy Journal” including the editorial committee has just been renewed. In this regard, I would like, on behalf of our entire community, to extend warm congratulations to Dr. Dorothée Charlier (University of Savoie Mont-Blanc) who has just joined this committee and is going from This ensures a welcome French presence in the governing bodies of this reference journal.
The IAEE also has conferences for members. On average, the AEE organizes around twenty conferences per year. After the hiatus of 2020 and 2021 during which, due to the pandemic, we opted for webinars, our conferences essentially returned to face-to-face mode. These events are intended to facilitate the circulation of ideas to contribute usefully to the public debate. In 2024, we will strengthen the times of conviviality after these conferences to prolong the dialogues.
As for the next international conferences, after Tokyo and Riyadh, they will be held in 2024 in Istanbul, in 2025 in Paris, in 2026 in New Orleans, in 2027 in Hong Kong, in 2028 in Abu Dhabi. Dhabi.
The Paris 2025 international conference is entrusted to Professor Cédric Clastres (University of Grenoble Alpes), who in his capacity as General Conference Chairman. It is expected to welcome more than 800 participants with top-ranking speakers who will meet at the Palais des Congrès. We will welcome sponsor applications now.
As I said in the introduction, the departure of President Marcel Boiteux does not mean the end of the awarding of the Prize that bears his name. Quite the contrary. Our mission remains more than ever to transmit its flame and its excellence in the energy economy. Civil society wants to understand the rationality of energy policies. This can be done through conferences but also through the recognition of remarkable works. To meet our mission of stimulating and disseminating economic science applied to energy, the AEE awards several distinctions annually. In addition to the Marcel Boiteux Prize for the best work in energy economics, the association recognizes each year the most promising research papers signed by young researchers enrolled in doctorates. New this year, a third type of reward will also honor remarkable work: that carried out as part of Master's theses. I would like to thank the members of these three juries who had the difficult task of evaluating the productions of the past year on our favorite themes.
It is therefore now time to award the AEE Prizes, starting with the 2023 Marcel Boiteux Prize. In 2022, this Prize was awarded to Claude Crampes of TSE for the collective work... Regulating Public Services: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice. For 2023, I will give the floor to the representative of the Jury without further delay.”
The teacher Olivier Massol (IFP School), President of the 2023 jury of the Marcel Boiteux Prize, declared: “This year, the jury wanted to distinguish a work which sheds light in accessible terms on a major issue: needs for materials raised by the energy transition and their multiple repercussions.
This year, the Marcel Boiteux Prize which rewards the Best Work in Energy Economics is awarded to the book “ Metals, the new Black Gold » from Emmanuel Hache And Benjamin Louvet .
Mineral questions are making a notable comeback in the news. In Europe, mines and metals have unfortunately been “put away in the closet of industrial history”. The energy transition and the new dependencies it generates are breaking the door of this forgotten closet. The break-in is violent: are we trading dependence on fossil fuels for a dependence on metals? We have collectively lived in the illusion of an abundant supply of metals, ensured by a competitive sector and presenting no geo-economic challenges. The realization is stark: the geostrategic, economic and industrial questions raised by the extraction and transformation of raw materials are a blind spot in the energy transition .
These questions are at the heart of the work proposed by Emmanuel Hache and Benjamin Louvet. An academic expert, Dr. Hache has been carrying out research on the subject for around ten years. In particular, he led the recent GENERATE project Geopolitics of Renewable Energy and Prospective Analysis of the Energy Transition financed by the National Research Agency. Asset manager specializing in raw materials, Benjamin Louvet brings the practitioner's perspective.
This intersection of points of view gives a clear plan. After a first part which recalls the climate imperative and synthetically presents the challenges of the energy transition, the second part gets to the heart of the matter. The authors first discuss the extent of the needs raised by the transition and the awareness of the strategic nature of certain raw materials. They then dive into the twists and turns of the mining and metallurgical industry value chains. If the geological constraints - the eternal questions linked to the endowment of resources - are obviously discussed, we must salute the vision of the authors who defend a broader conception of the notion of criticality of materials. For them, this necessarily integrates industrial, environmental and geostrategic issues. Finally, the authors invite us to look beyond geological inventories and to consider the bottlenecks that constrain the development of new mining projects.
The third part of the book focuses on the economic, geostrategic and environmental implications of the transition to low-carbon technologies. From an economic point of view, the additional demand it causes increases prices on the markets for the main metals and increases the manufacturing costs of low-carbon technologies. These inflationary effects must nevertheless be compared to the costs of climate inaction. From a geostrategic point of view, the transition should prove favorable to major mining countries (Australia, Canada, the Argentina-Bolivia-Chile lithium triangle), in the Asia Pacific (China, Indonesia). ©sia, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma) and African economies with geological potential (particularly in sub-Saharan Africa). However, there is "far from cutting corners" and the work discusses the capacity of these economies to transform this geological endowment into a sustainable take-off. This part is also an opportunity to discuss two hot topics: (i) Chinese ambitions and China's leading role in the downstream of the value chain, and (ii ) the future of Russia's exceptional mining potential. The repercussions on international relations in a context of geostrategic rivalries are not avoided. The authors also discuss the temptation of cartelization for mining countries. From an environmental perspective, the book reviews the multiple environmental footprints of mining activities. Even motivated by the low-carbon transition, the rise of new mining projects will generate externalities.
Faced with these upheavals, the authors draw several conclusions. For importing countries, recycling appears to be a strategic imperative but it remains handicapped by its cost and uncertainties about the potential of the sector. This observation leads the authors to consider policies aimed at moderating demand. From a geopolitical point of view, the mineral question is a new terrain where the antagonism between the USA and China is expressed and the book reviews the strategies implemented by the two giants.
The conclusion of the book is an opportunity to discuss the singularity of the European position and emphasizes French shortcomings. Due to an unfavorable geological endowment, the dependence of the continent is difficult to circumvent but the authors also note numerous strategic errors and deplore the absence of geostrategic vision logic within the EU. On a more positive note, the book highlights the EU's strengths (notably its financial and technological capabilities). Will they be enough?
The great strength of this work lies in its educational qualities. If the lively and lively style makes the reading pleasant, the rigor of the subject, always precise and documented, shows that it is possible to address the greatest number of people while keeping academic standards firmly anchored in heart. In short, here is a work intended for the greatest number of people which does honor to the profession! HAS
HAS
Christophe Bonnery adds: “The need to reduce our emissions is well known to economists. Our community of economists must work to propose acceptable transformations to decarbonize the energy sector, stimulate sobriety and fuel growth. Situations of precariousness in France and around the world are often the cause of violent consumer reactions to the effort required to respect the environment, an effort always generating extra cost. It is up to us, as economists, to better explain that environmental costs can fuel tax incentives if they are fairly distributed.
Ignoring it is a mistake. Recalling the imperative need to fight climate change and at the same time capturing and making known economic realities are the missions to which our community of economists must fulfill lay.”
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