We discuss, by a philosophical method inspired of Quine, the nature of the risk posed by GMOs. Our analysis concludes to the religious origin of the belief of researchers to overall resilience of nature to perturbations of the genetic molecular combination.

La croissance spectaculaire des marchés du photovoltaïque dans différents pays donne l'illusion d'un décollage commercial de cette technologie alors qu'elle se fonde sur le développement de marchés très subventionnés par des tarifs d'achat pour tirer le développement des capacités de...

This paper aims at clarifying some conceptual flaws blurring the equity-efficiency debates involved in the setting of objectives of GHGs emissions control beyond 2012. To this end, it carries out numerical experiments that test the viability of agreements grounded on two contrasting target...

La méthode des analogues climatiques consiste à déterminer un endroit doté aujourd'hui d'un climat comparable à celui que l'on prédit à la fin du siècle. Ce travail représente ainsi ce que signifie le changement climatique pour Paris et 8 autres grandes villes européennes. Dans le...

De décembre 2006 à mai 2009, le projet de recherche SOCECO21 a étudié les aspects économiques et sociaux du captage et stockage du CO2 en France. Selon le sondage CIRED-TNS SOFRES réalisé à cette occasion, 6% des français donnent une définition exacte du stockage géologique du CO2....

This paper addresses the timing of the use of biological carbon sequestration and its capacity to alleviate the carbon constraint on the energy sector. We constructed a stochastic optimal control model balancing the costs of fossil emission abatement, the opportunity costs of lands allocated to...

An awareness and opinion survey on Carbon Capture and Storage was conducted on a representative sample of French aged 15 years and above. About 6\% of respondents were able to provide a satisfying definition of the technology. The key question about 'approval of or opposition to' the use of CCS...

This paper assesses the impact of French policies for residential space-heating energy consumption, both enacted (tax credits for the purchase of energy efficient durables, soft loans for retrofitting actions, stringent building codes) and anticipated (carbon tax, retrofitting obligation). It...

In this paper we analyze the recent propositions to reorganize the French industry of reactors in view to increase its efficiency on the export markets. Based on a critic of the choices of reactor technologies offered to export market, the Roussely report published on June 2010 recommends to...

With respect to the climate change, and more generally to the energy problem, in the laboratories working on the subject, scientists contribute to clarify the situation and to help decision makers by yielding and updating factual physical informations, and also by modelling. This conceptual work...