PAST TRANSITIONS

摘要

Concerns about the need to accelerate the energy transition have intensified a long-running debate between economic historians and energy economists on the nature of past transitions and their lessons for today. Even the term "energy transition" is contested, but for these purposes, it is worth taking University of Winnipeg Professor Vaclav Smil's definition of a transition as the evolution of a new primary energy source from its introduction to its accounting for a substantial share of total energy needs (25%). From that perspective, energy transitions have been relatively rare, unfolding over decades if not centuries.