Publications
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Is Cameroon still a country of oil professionals?
Op-ed in EcoMatin, 11 November 2026: oil and gas provide only 9% of Cameroon's domestic revenue, but its oil professionals could strengthen the power sector.
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Mbappe Affair Augurs Poorly for Free Speech in Europe
Op-ed in Domino Theory, 10 November 2026: after the Mbappé affair, UEFA and the EU should treat Chinese coercion of private actors as coercion of Europe.
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Eni fronts Republic of Congo grid repair bill as distribution lease stays frozen
Analysis co-written with Jon Marks in African Energy (issue 550, 4 November 2026): Eni completes the Pointe-Noire–Brazzaville line refurbishment while other power sector reforms in Congo lag.
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The Mbappé affair: "Leagues and clubs should apply a political-risk discount to Chinese revenue, as an investor does in an unstable country"
Op-ed in Le Cercle, Les Echos, 3 November 2026: the collapse of Kylian Mbappé's Chinese deals shows that football's Chinese revenue is correlated and political. Rather than apologising after the fact, clubs, leagues and player unions can write that risk into their contracts.
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Cameroon: Arrears for flagship hydroelectric plant almost exhausted guarantee
Analysis co-written with Marc Howard in African Energy (issue 550, 1 November 2026): arrears from the state-owned offtaker almost exhausted the guarantee of a flagship hydroelectric plant in Cameroon.
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European soccer’s apology to China
Editorial in the Taipei Times, 1 November 2026: over a meme, Beijing obtained an apology from European soccer. Taiwan can make bravery cheaper.
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Beijing was watching diesel deal (Taiwan)
Op-ed published by the Taipei Times on 21 October 2026: after Washington waived its sanctions on Russian diesel, Taiwan should rely on its own gas reserves rather than on promised sanctions.
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A cold room can change a territory's economy (DR Congo)
Op-ed published by Cœur d'Afrique on 19 October 2026: in Kinshasa, a shared solar cold room would spare market vendors from selling off or throwing away fresh food on blackout days.
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Publishing oil prices to sell Congolese crude better (Congo)
Op-ed published by Tribune Eco on 17 October 2026: a one-page quarterly report on crude sales to narrow the discount on Congolese oil against Brent.
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“Before the Blockade: Marine Insurance's Relevance to Taiwan's Energy Lifeline”
Analysis in the Global Taiwan Brief: before any naval blockade, a London underwriter's decision can be enough to cut Taiwan off from its LNG.
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Taiwan’s nuclear restart faces an environmental review dispute
Analysis in the Taipei Times, 13 October 2026: Ma-anshan's restart is cleared on safety, but whether an environmental assessment is required divides opinion.
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Socadel, five months on: good figures and a proposal before the dry season (Cameroon)
Op-ed published by Journal du Cameroun on 12 October 2026: a first assessment of Socadel and a simple proposal before the dry season, publishing the average length of outages by region every month.
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In Douala, factories should know the day before when the power will be cut (Cameroon)
Op-ed in EcoMatin, 1 October 2026: give factories advance notice of demand reductions and finance equipment that eases pressure on Douala's electricity grid.
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讓送水的管線也發電！— “Let the water pipes generate power too” (獨立評論@天下 Opinion@CommonWealth, Taiwan)
Op-ed in 獨立評論@天下: Taiwan's existing water mains and irrigation channels can generate power, provided each site proves it first.
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The day our region became Europe's electricity gold medallist
Contribution in Lyon Mag, 21 September 2026: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is Europe's leading electricity-producing region, and nobody announced it.
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With rare earths, Taiwan looks beyond the ‘red supply chain’
A Taipei Times feature published on 19 September 2026: Taiwan has credible rare-earth refining and recycling expertise, but still has to connect feedstock, processes, customers and commercial viability.
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Realizing Taiwan's AI ambitions
Op-ed in the Taipei Times, 18 September 2026, following the Taiwan-France Economic Cooperation Conference in Paris: turning Taiwan's AI policy into electricity policy.
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How France and Taiwan Can Make AI Investment Strengthen Energy Security
Op-ed in CommonWealth Magazine, 16 September 2026, following the 28th Taiwan-France Economic Cooperation Conference in Paris: tying public support for AI projects to what they contribute to the power grid.
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Data centres in the Lyon Metropolis: what lies behind the cloud
Contribution in Lyon Mag, 13 September 2026: what the data-centre projects in Dardilly and Vénissieux bring to the area, and how to move from announcements to verifiable commitments.
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Electricity tariff reform in Cameroon: linking prices to reliability of service
Op-ed in Défis Actuels (Cameroon), 9 September 2026: making a tariff adjustment acceptable by tying it to measurable gains in grid reliability.
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Electricity in Cameroon: two practical ways to improve the grid and reduce losses
Op-ed published by Journal du Cameroun on 31 August 2026: two methods that can be tested immediately to improve grid investment planning and separate, feeder by feeder, technical losses, billing failures and unpaid bills.
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“Taiwan's AI strategy has a public data problem”
Feature in the Taipei Times: Taiwan's AI power-demand estimates conflict, and grid-connection data stays too opaque to check new gas plants against actual need.
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The video accusing Russia over fuel in Burkina Faso is manipulated
AFP Factuel debunked a viral video blaming Burkina Faso's fuel price rise on a dispute with Russia: the audio was AI-generated. I provided the regional context on oil prices.
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When the Rhône gets too warm for nuclear power
Op-ed in Lyon Mag, 24 August 2026: a reactor shutdown at Bugey exposes a timing problem — heatwaves cut output at the very moment air conditioning drives demand up.
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“Europe's chip de-risking has no energy chapter” (Taiwan)
Analysis published by CEIAS: European semiconductor policy counts fabs, never the megawatts every advanced chip made in Taiwan depends on.
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In Douala, electricity is not what is missing — the delivery is (Cameroon)
Op-ed in EcoMatin (Cameroon), 21 August 2026: in Douala, nearly seven outages in ten come from the wires rather than the power stations — and from the way decisions are made.
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Socadel will inherit the meters, not the capacity: the real challenge for Cameroon's power distribution
Op-ed in Défis Actuels (Cameroon), 18 August 2026: the handover of power distribution to Socadel turns less on assets than on the capacity to run them.
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廈金通電 不能只算30億元 — “The Xiamen–Kinmen Power Link Is Not Just a NT$3 Billion Question” (自由時報 Liberty Times, Taiwan)
Op-ed in the 自由時報 (Liberty Times): the NT$3 billion saved by wiring Kinmen to Fujian hides what actually matters — who controls the grid, and whether Taiwan can still walk away.
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"La fenêtre de rente : la sortie émirienne de l'OPEP+ comme aboutissement" (United Arab Emirates)
Article published in La Revue de l'Énergie, no. 685 (2026/4), pp. 48-62: the Emirati withdrawal from OPEC+ read not as a rupture, but as the culmination of a fifteen-year strategy of intertemporal oil rent maximisation.
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"Twenty Years of Taiwan in Avignon: Soft Power on Someone Else's Terms"
Opinion piece published in Taiwan Insight, the academic magazine of the University of Nottingham's Taiwan Research Hub: twenty years of Taiwanese presence at the Festival Off d'Avignon, and what French selection lets artists say — or not.
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"Nuclear plants shut down: the scenario combining a prolonged heatwave, overheated water and falling river flows is straining France's fleet"
Op-ed published in Le Monde: the unprecedented drop in river flows and their warming are producing a tipping-point effect that is straining the French nuclear fleet in summer, calling for a revision of the hydrological scenarios used in energy planning.
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"Pourquoi les partis marocains ne parlent-ils pas d'énergie ?" (Morocco)
Opinion piece published in Hespress: Morocco has run a continuous energy strategy since 2009, yet the September 2026 election campaign ignores the decisions — tariffs, desalination, long-term contracts — that will bind the next parliament.
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Air conditioning is a machine, access to it is a policy
Field investigation (reporting and fact-checking), published in Lyon Mag, on unequal access to air conditioning in Lyon and heat-related mortality — at least 5,764 excess deaths between 17 June and 2 July 2026 according to Santé publique France. The piece brings together academic research, tax policy (VAT, renovation subsidies) and metropolitan portfolios to show the lack of a single lead on urban heat policy.
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Taiwan's nuclear restart: what the domestic debate does not decide
Feature in the Taipei Times: the referendum, the regulator and the budget settle whether Taiwan wants reactors. Fuel fabrication, enrichment and the back end decide whether it can run them.
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Under construction: we grumble at what keeps the city from breaking down
Op-ed in Lyon Mag: Lyon's summer roadworks as a window onto the invisible workings of urban infrastructure. Draws on Star and Ruhleder (infrastructure is invisible as long as it works) and Huré (technology as lever or constraint on urban public action), around the coordination of forty project owners and the political trade-off between inaugurating and maintaining.
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Cameroon Has the Power. It Cannot Deliver It.
Op-ed in African Arguments: Cameroon holds some of Central Africa's largest hydroelectric resources — yet chronic power cuts remain the norm. Drawing on a field mission in Yaoundé, the article examines the structural barriers — sector renationalisation, underinvestment in distribution networks, fragmented governance — that sustain this paradox.
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Taiwan, or the return of electric sovereignty
Taiwan imports 95% of its energy and is connected to no external grid, even as TSMC could consume a quarter of the island's electricity by 2030. Romain Blachier examines this sovereignty challenge, drawing comparisons with Ireland, Cameroon and France.
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The air conditioner and the plane tree
Op-ed in Lyon Mag: three decisions taken during Lyon's 2026 heatwave — the abandonment of the Rive Droite riverbank project, regional air conditioners, metropolitan inaction. Draws on Bauer (policy dismantling), Jacobs (self-undermining feedback), Kehler (the mandate/authority gap in climate adaptation), Förell (discursive blurring) and a UK/Denmark comparison on multi-year commitments.
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Kinmen and the law that says no (Taiwan)
Op-ed in the Taipei Times: the electrical connection between Kinmen and China's Fujian province is technically feasible — it is a deliberate legal and political choice that forbids it. Accepting this NT$3 billion annual cost, and making it visible, is a decision Taiwan should own proudly.
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Electricity in Cameroon, three priorities to turn nationalisation into a lasting success
Published in Cameroun Actuel, this op-ed analyses the conditions for a successful renationalisation of Cameroon's electricity sector — ENEO becoming SOCADEL — and identifies three priority workstreams to make it a lasting success.
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China's ethnic unity law — when Beijing legislates for the whole world
Published in Revue Conflits, this article analyses China's ethnic unity law and its extraterritorial ambitions: how Beijing intends to extend its identity norms far beyond the borders of the People's Republic.
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Is China communist?
Published in Revue Conflits no. 64 (special report 'China, a challenge for Europe'), this article argues that the CCP is more Leninist than Marxist — and that the ultimate paradox is that Xi Jinping's party looks more like the Kuomintang of the 1970s than Mao's CCP.
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Energy and social justice: making renovation possible
Policy paper I wrote for Terra Nova, published on La Grande Conversation: why home energy renovation remains stuck in France despite massive public support, and how to lift the financial and institutional obstacles.
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An energy lifeline is not a strategy (Taiwan)
Op-ed in the Taipei Times: the Taiwan Energy Security and Anti-Embargo Act moving through the US Congress secures supply by sea, but a lifeline is not a strategy. Taiwan's real energy security is generated on the island.
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Taiwan Needs More Power: The Answer Lies Underground and Offshore
Op-ed published in the 自由時報 (Liberty Times), June 24, 2026: as electricity demand surges, adding gas-fired plants merely shifts an import dependency that already reaches 97%. The real answers are local — geothermal beneath the island and wind power out at sea.
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Heatwave: in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the real challenge is no longer producing clean power, but switching usages
The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region produces 119 TWh a year, 96.5% of it carbon-free, and exports its surplus to Switzerland and Italy. The real challenge is no longer production: it is decarbonising usage. Transport, heating and industry still burn oil and gas, and green electricity is not uniform — abundant at midday, more carbon-intensive in the evening. Without a massive switch in usage and grid adaptation (€1.5bn of RTE investment by 2030), the transition will remain incomplete.
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Large Self-Generating Consumers Must Embrace Renewables (Taiwan)
Op-ed published in the 聯合報 (United Daily News), June 21, 2026: Taiwan's revised Energy Management Act allows large industrial users to self-generate electricity using natural gas — but that does nothing to strengthen energy independence. Only local resources — solar, wind, geothermal — can reduce an import dependency that exceeds 90%.
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For Samoa, renewables are the right bet — if they are built to survive a cyclone
Op-ed in the Samoa Observer: for Samoa, going renewable makes clear economic sense, but success depends on cyclone resilience, governance and local training.
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The 2026 World Cup, a tournament shaped by energy
Published in Revue Conflits, this article examines how the major energy powers are using the 2026 World Cup as a lever of geopolitical influence.
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Part two — Taiwan's geothermal problem is above ground
The second part of my Taipei Times series: Taiwan's geothermal lag comes not from underground but from above it. The potential and the capital are there; what is missing is an institutional framework able to share exploration risk and hold a strategy over time.
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City-to-city diplomacy with Taiwan
Interview on Radio Taiwan International's show "Taiwan vs. the World" about city diplomacy: how city-to-city and metropolis-to-metropolis cooperation can deepen ties with Taiwan.
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Integrating electricity in Central Africa — the metropolis as absent arbiter (Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, DR Congo)
Published by Fondation Jean-Jaurès, this note examines electricity governance challenges in three Central African capitals — Kinshasa, Douala, Brazzaville — where metropolitan areas concentrate demand without having decision-making power over the electrical systems that serve them.
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Taiwan's paradiplomacy, performing sovereignty
Article published in the Global Taiwan Brief on Taiwan's paradiplomacy: TECRO networks, NGO-based diplomacy, decentralized cooperation, and performed sovereignty in the face of diplomatic isolation.
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Energy Policy Should Not Switch Sides at Every Election (Taiwan)
Op-ed published in the 聯合報 (United Daily News), one of Taiwan's major daily newspapers (page A14): why does Taiwan pay its energy bill twice — once in a subsidized electricity price, once in taxes to cover the public utility's losses? NT$420 billion in cumulative deficit, ten days of gas reserves — and a problem that is less about technology than about governance.
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Energy — Lyon also manufactures cold
Published in Lyon Mag, this article explores Lyon's urban district cooling networks: a little-known energy infrastructure that cools buildings and public spaces without individual air conditioning units.
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Featured in Features — Why Taiwan's energy transition keeps falling short
My article opens the Features supplement of the Taipei Times: Taiwan's energy transition is held back less by geology or capital than by the institutional capacity to execute. Part one of a two-part series.
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Territorial Justice and the Energy Transition (France and Taiwan)
Article published in New Bloom Magazine comparing French and Taiwanese approaches to the energy transition through the lens of territorial justice and democratic governance.
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City paradiplomacy, Taiwan's Plan C
Op-ed published in the Taipei Times on the role of partnerships between European and Taiwanese cities as a diplomatic lever against the island's isolation.
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The real reason behind the UAE's departure from OPEC
Published on Slate.fr, this article examines the real reasons behind the UAE's withdrawal from OPEC — beyond the Iran-Hormuz war, a fifteen-year oil strategy.
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Why Electricity Prices That Are Too Low Could Hurt Taiwan
Op-ed published in CommonWealth Magazine (天下雜誌), Taiwan's leading economic magazine: Taiwan's artificially low electricity tariffs may look like an industrial advantage, but the gap between the price paid and the real cost is not a subsidy — it's a debt. Record losses at Taipower, stalled renewable investment, and demand supercharged by AI.
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Le Vif: Taiwan's partisan divisions — a windfall for Beijing?
Belgian weekly Le Vif publishes an in-depth article on the divergences between the KMT and the DPP over relations with China, featuring analysis from Barthélémy Courmont and myself.
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The UAE's exit from OPEC is not what you think
Published on Telos, this article analyses the UAE's withdrawal from OPEC in April 2026 — not as a sudden break, but as the logical outcome of a fifteen-year strategy to maximise oil rent.
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Taiwan leans on diplomatic plan B
Op-ed published in the Taipei Times on Taiwan's strategic shift toward parliamentary diplomacy as executive-level diplomatic access is increasingly blocked by China.
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When Taiwan's main opposition party pivots towards Beijing
Published by Fondation Jean-Jaurès, this note examines the April 2026 visit to Beijing by the leader of Taiwan's Kuomintang and what it reveals about democratic fragility in the face of authoritarian appeal.
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Chinese coercion in Taiwan's skies
Published in Le Temps, this op-ed examines how Beijing pressured several Indian Ocean states into withdrawing overflight clearances for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te — a precedent democracies cannot afford to ignore.
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Asian Communists — is the East still red? (Vietnam, Laos, North Korea)
Published in Revue Conflits, this article revisits what remains of 'communism' in Asia: from North Korean racial nationalism to the Vietnamese and Laotian developmental states, the label conceals more than it clarifies.
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How Beijing grounded Taiwan's president
Published in Revue Conflits, this article examines how China pressured the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar into withdrawing overflight clearances, preventing the Taiwanese president from reaching Eswatini.
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Hormuz reveals our energy tensions, in Asia and in Europe
Published by Terra Nova on La Grande Conversation, this op-ed examines the oil crisis triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and what it says about Asia's fossil-fuel dependence and Europe's blind spots.
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The energy beneath Taiwan's feet
Feature article published in the Taipei Times on Taiwan's geothermal potential, the regulatory and financial barriers to its development, and the energy sovereignty stakes tied to TSMC and the semiconductor industry's power demand.
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The KMT's 'imperialist' rhetoric shifts Taiwan's democratic fault line
An op-ed published in Asia Times on the ideological drift of the KMT under Cheng Li-wun's presidency — and what it reveals about the future of Taiwanese democracy.
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Taiwan's Energy Challenges
Opinion piece published in Taiwan Insight, the online academic magazine of the University of Nottingham's Taiwan Research Hub, on Taiwan's energy challenges and their geopolitical implications.
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Taiwan, AI and the resource wall
Op-ed published in the Taipei Times on Taiwan's AI ambitions versus the island's energy and water constraints.
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Taiwan caught in an energy vice
Published in Revue Conflits, this article analyses Taiwan's structural energy vulnerability: 97% of primary energy imported, LNG dependence, nuclear trade-offs, TSMC's enormous consumption, and the risk of a blockade.
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Lyon deserves night trains!
Published in Lyon Mag, this article makes the case for restoring night train services from Lyon: decarbonised travel, competitiveness against aviation, and territorial cohesion.
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Madrid or Algiers on the Rhône — closer than you think
Published in Lyon Mag, this article analyses the climate trajectory of the Rhône valley: temperatures and river levels now resembling those of Madrid or Algiers, and the adaptation policies needed.
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Lyon's Climate March — don't forget what comes next!
Published in Lyon Mag, this article calls for turning citizens' climate mobilisation into concrete public policies: carbon pricing, energy renovation, public transport.
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Will it still be possible to post snow photos from Lyon on Facebook?
Published in Lyon Mag, this article grounds global climate change data in a concrete local reality: increasingly mild winters in Lyon and the trajectory of the city's climate in the decades ahead.
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Why Taiwan is going to change
Published in Le HuffPost, this article analyses the political, economic and geopolitical forces pointing to a profound transformation of Taiwan.
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Intelligence bill — if I were an MP…
Published in Rue89 Lyon, this article sets out the reasons why, as an elected citizen, I would have voted against the French intelligence bill: mass surveillance, civil liberties, and insufficient democratic oversight.
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Yes, we can criticise Silicon Valley! (United States)
Published in Marianne, this article argues for the right to criticise Silicon Valley — its monopolies, its tax practices, and the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few American tech giants.
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So there are no more Kobanés (Syria)
Published in Le HuffPost, this article analyses the encirclement of Kobané by ISIS, the contradictions of Turkish policy, and the paralysis of the Western coalition in the face of the Islamic State's advance.
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Cabinet reshuffle — why not create a proper Ministry of Digital Affairs?
Published in Rue89 Lyon, this article proposes using a government reshuffle as an opportunity to consolidate scattered digital competencies into a single, coherent ministry equal to the challenges of the state's digital transformation.
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Persecuted, are Middle Eastern Christians doomed to disappear? (Iraq, Syria, Egypt)
Published in Libération, this article examines the capacity of Christian communities in Iraq, Syria and Egypt to survive jihadist persecution and regional geopolitical upheaval.
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Free software, a tool for national productive recovery
Published in Le HuffPost, this article argues for making free and open-source software a strategic lever for France's industrial and economic renewal.
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World Toilet Day is a serious matter
Published in Le HuffPost, this article reminds us that one in three people worldwide lacks access to adequate sanitation — a public health, development and human rights issue.
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Greater Paris and the «French desert»
Published in Libération in 2013, this op-ed criticises the imbalance in state resources between the Île-de-France region and the rest of the country, using the financing of the Greater Paris project as a starting point — and questions the persistence of an old French centralism, Paris versus the « French desert ».
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Entrepreneurs, we love you!
Published in Le Monde, this article makes the case for an economic policy that values entrepreneurship, innovation and company creation — at a time when French political debate pitted speculative finance against industry.