5. Conclusion

The main challenge for economists today is to predict how energy demand will evolve over the coming decades, given the many factors to be taken into account. Demographic pressure, the needs of developing countries, the penetration of digital technology into everyday activity, including mobility, are all driving the development of new uses, which should increase the need for energy, particularly electricity. At the same time, however, technical progress is improving efficiency throughout the energy chain, and this argues in favor of slower growth in demand. The main problem today is no longer that of depleting energy resources, but rather that of not extracting all fossil fuels to avoid accelerating global warming. One of the COP21's ambitious objectives is to achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2050: carbon emissions must be strictly offset by an equal quantity of carbon trapped in "carbon sinks":...