CRIS SCIENTIFIC SEMINAR 2024-2025

TALK WITH LUCAS CHANCEL, Associate Professor, Sciences Po - CRIS & Co-Director of the World Inequality Lab (PSE)

This seminar presents a work in progress based on a new historical database tracing energy consumption and ownership over the past 150 years in European countries, the United States, China, and India. 

Built from original sources —including censuses, government and corporate reports— as well as long-run statistical series, the project examines how energy regimes, defined as the technical, political, and socio-economic arrangements structuring energy production, transport, and use, have evolved. 

We explore the dynamics of ownership transfers in the energy sector (public, private, or cooperative) and analyse their justifications and implications for both wealth and political inequality. The patterns uncovered reveal a wide diversity of energy mixes and ownership regimes, underscoring the importance of political choices in shaping energy production and distribution networks beyond pure economic or resource constraints. 

The findings also suggest that public or cooperative ownership has largely been used to foster equal access to energy while simultaneously limiting the potential for wealth concentration. Under strict conditions, these forms of ownership could be well-suited to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuel-based regimes. We discuss how these long-term trajectories can inform contemporary debates on a just transition.

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