A conference on the theme of "regaining our sovereignty through a robust decarbonization strategy" during the eco meetings
As part of its "eco meetings" series, the Faculty of Economics at the University of Montpellier is organizing a conference on the theme: "Regaining our sovereignty through a robust decarbonization strategy" on Thursday, February 5, 2026, starting at 6:00 p.m., on the Richter campus Richter campus of the Faculty of Economics.
Why this conference?
Matthieu Auzanneau, Director of The Shift Project, explains why, in his view, we have not one but two excellent reasons to take our decarbonization (climate) goals very seriously. For The Shift Project, decarbonization is the necessary path that will enable the European Union to achieve strategic autonomy. But this path is difficult, due to the physical limitations of our domestic low-carbon energy sources and the constraints on the industrial systems that will depend on them. This path to sovereignty through decarbonization requires boldness and cohesion, on a par with that of the pioneers who founded Europe on energy—coal and steel, atomic power, agricultural abundance—at the end of World War II.
Speaker:
Matthieu Auzanneau has been directing The Shift Project, a leading think tank on energy transition, since 2016. Previously, Matthieu was a journalist focusing on issues at the intersection of economics and ecology (Le Monde, Arte, France 2, etc.). In 2002, he made the first French documentary showing the concrete consequences of global warming in Alaska for Envoyé Spécial. He was behind the first TV program investigating and reporting on the environment, "Global Mag," broadcast on Arte from 2008.
Matthieu is a guest blogger for Le Monde, with his blog "Oil Man, chronicles of the beginning of the end of oil." He is the author of Black Gold: The Great History of Oil (2015, La Découverte), deemed "prodigious" by Nature magazine and awarded by the French Association of Energy Economists.
