Christopher Nolan's recent biographical film Oppenheimer reminded us that, in the face of a global emergency, humankind is capable of incredibly swift and effective collective action – however fateful its purpose. Five years after its inception, the Manhattan Project [which produced the first atomic bomb] was an unprecedented technical achievement. It embraced the most advanced science of the time and achieved its industrialization on a massive scale, involving over 130,000 men and women, from research laboratories to refining plants.
And if humankind is capable of such feats of destruction, it can be just as capable of the common good in times of peace. At a time of never-ending climate disasters – fires, floods, heatwaves, droughts... – it is now undeniable that global warming is an existential threat. Limiting the warming and adapting to it is an imperative and overriding duty: the greatest challenge in human history. In agriculture, industry and transport, fossil fuels form the very basis of modern industrial society. Doing without them implies a new collective organization and, in particular, a profound transformation of our technical and industrial tools. Decarbonizing the energy, physical, chemical and agricultural processes that underpin the industrialized world in order to avoid millions of deaths: This is our historic responsibility.
Yet the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned us: 40% of the technologies needed for environmental transition are not at a sufficient level of maturity. The agency gives the example of seawater electrolysis for hydrogen production, sodium batteries, CO2 capture or conversion, and heat storage. Unfortunately, far from contributing to the transition, many of these "strategic technologies" are still at the stage of laboratory experiments carried out by a few scientists with modest means.
Despite the urgency, the transition has in fact not begun: Emissions continue to rise. We are failing and we are condemning our children. To meet this urgent challenge, we need to combine rapid scientific advances with massive industrial transformation. We, scientists from all backgrounds, are calling for the implementation of a Manhattan Project for environmental transition. France, and more broadly Europe, can make it happen.
We are calling for the creation of a research and innovation center, tasked with developing the scientific and technological tools for the transition, in direct liaison with industry. Like CERN, the European organization for nuclear research, it will collaborate with the entire international academic and industrial fabric, including emerging and less advanced countries, and act as an open scientific and technological hub. This hub will bring together the best scientists and engineers with the means to move fast. In particular, all research will be directed towards the development of decarbonized processes and their rapid deployment on a large scale, moving them from the laboratory to industries capable of implementing the transition. In order to meet the COP21 objectives of carbon neutrality by 2050, we expect the project to have a lifespan of 25 years.
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