For the first time, investments in energy transition technologies will have been greater than those devoted to the production and exploration of fossil energy, oil and gas.

Nicolas Barré takes stock of a current economic issue.

Never have investments in energy transition been so high in the world.

The past year has been a historic tipping point.

It should be noted that in 2020, for the first time, investments in energy transition technologies will have been greater than those devoted to the production and exploration of fossil energy, oil and gas.

Over $ 500 billion was invested last year in renewable energies, energy storage, hydrogen, CO2 capture, in short, in everything called the energy transition.

At the same time, spending on hydrocarbons, including shale oil and gas, has fallen to its lowest level in ten years.

We will therefore remember that it is in 2020, the year of the Covid, that the world has changed priorities.

Europe is at the forefront.

A third of global investments in energy transition are made in Europe.

We are ahead of China and the United States.

It must be said that it is in Europe that the pressure is greatest to "green" the energy mix.

The standards are tougher than elsewhere, for example with regard to electric vehicles and the reduction of CO2 emissions.

In concrete terms, these standards have earned Volkswagen a fine of around 150 million euros because its range of cars emits on average too much CO2 compared to the targets set by Brussels.

The European recovery plan, which will undoubtedly have to be extended with the third confinement which is looming, also includes a strong "green" dimension aimed again at orienting investments towards the energy transition.

Even the oil companies are in the process.

The movement is well underway.

The oil and gas “majors” are becoming engines of the energy transition.

The sector as a whole reduced its investments in hydrocarbons by 30% last year, which is still $ 160 billion less.

And all these large groups, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, BP hold more or less the same speech, saying that we will no longer find the levels of investment of previous years in fossil fuels.

On the other hand, they take the opportunity to invest in other energy sources such as solar energy, which Total does for example.

It is as if we have really reached a tipping point.

If there is one world that is changing, it is that of energy.