Rapid energy transition: How can the adjustments be made less painful?
If the energy transition is rapid in OECD countries, the necessary adjustments may be very painful because they involve adjustments in stocks (for example in the capital stock) and not in flows: Destruction of capital that has become obsolete (production of ICE cars, electricity production using fossil fuels, oil and natural gas deposits), which will reduce production and also lead to significant losses for some companies; Change in urban planning ("urban sprawl" is incompatible with the energy transition), but this is slow and costly; Destruction of certain jobs (in the same industries as those mentioned above, in transport, etc.), replaced with different jobs (insulation of buildings, electricity storage, installation of renewable energies, dismantling of electric batteries), which raises the question of the ability to transform these jobs. How to prevent these adjustments from being very painful? By helping companies invest in new capital (low interest rates, favourable tax rules); By changing urban planning rules in cities, by making capital losses on real estate capital tax deductible; By giving a lot of resources to re-skilling and vocational training policies .