Sustainability and systemic challenges of the energy transition: the case of the baking industry

The Montpellier Environment Research Observatory (OREME) is offering a series of short, multidisciplinary lectures aimed at raising awareness and promoting discussion on the issue of climate change. The "OREME Mini-Lectures" are open to the public and focus on environmental, earth, and planetary sciences. On Thursday, January 25, 2024, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. on the Triolet campus, the University of Montpellier will host the conference "Sustainability and systemic challenges of the energy transition: the case of the bakery sector." It will be presented by Benjamin PILLOT, researcher at UMR ESPACE-DEV, IRD.

The conference in a nutshell

From the yellow vest movement to the war in Ukraine, tensions over the availability of energy services have continued to grow in recent years. Electricity prices more than doubled between 2020 and 2022 in Europe, affecting a range of small-scale economic activities. Last January, for example, artisan bakers took to the streets to protest the explosion in their energy bills. The government's response to these systemic issues remains more or less the same, primarily focused on subsidies and financial compensation measures. These measures demonstrate the gap that exists today between the mindset of political leaders and the reality of the socio-environmental challenges of our century, which has been extensively described in scientific literature. To better understand how to bridge this gap, this conference will detail the scientific, societal, and science-society challenges of a sustainable energy transition. We will focus in particular on what could be a solution for the future of artisan baking: solar baking.

Benjamin Pillot is a modeler and researcher at the French Research Institute Research Sustainable Development (IRD, UMR Espace-DEV), specializing in socio-energy systems. He works primarily on developing energy transition scenarios through systemic approaches linked to sustainability science. His research focuses on topics such as the evolution of energy systems in the context of climate change in West Africa, solar baking and food self-sufficiency thresholds on Reunion Island, and human mobility and intra-urban land use planning in Brazil.

Free conference, no registration required, subject to availability.