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Short abstract:

Basing on STS literature focused on the process of doing less, withdrawing, or consuming less something, this paper analyses the turning point that occurred in France during 2022 as regards energy sufficiency. To what has sufficiency been attached, to make it audible in public discourse and policy?

Long abstract:

According to the IPCC, the window for action to mitigate climate change is narrowing, but sociotechnical transformations remain slow because of the inertia of sociotechnical systems, social norms and lifestyles. However, a turning point seems to have been reached in France during 2022 as regards energy sufficiency. In a presidential speech in February 2022, energy sufficiency was named among the solutions promoted to achieve a desirable energy-climate trajectory, but it was immediately reframed as the production of innovations and new objects. A few months later, in view of soaring energy prices and the visible effects of climate change such as droughts and fires, energy sufficiency took on the meaning of a reduction in energy consumption, which had to be effective. Various public policy instruments were implemented, the rhetoric changed and a significant reduction in energy consumption in the residential and tertiary sectors was observed (-8% for electricity, -13% for gas).

STS literature has shown that doing less, withdrawing, or consuming less of something involves a process of attachment and detachment, in a way comparable to the process of innovation (Goulet & Vinck, 2022). From what has the norm of high energy consumption been detached, to make sufficiency an audible object in public discourse and policy? To what has sufficiency been attached? What new arrangements were produced during the winter of 2022-2023? And since the precise conditions of their emergence have changed, what is the relative strength of the new attachments compared with the former ones?