The 1973 Oil Shock: Catalyst for Renewable Energy Policy in the European Community (1973-1989)?
This project examines the evolution of energy policies toward the development of renewable energy initiatives following the 1973 oil shock, a critical period when energy issues and environmental concerns began to converge. Building on my doctoral research, which explored the failure of the EC’s common energy policy and the energy strategies of Italy and France in the immediate aftermath of the crisis, this project seeks to understand the role of the oil shock in prompting the search for alternative energy sources. It investigates how this event may have influenced the development of renewable energy policies within the European Community.
In the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, the EC and its member states were primarily concerned with ensuring energy security and reducing dependence on oil imports. In the following years, however, debates about environmental pollution and the potential of renewable energy sources began to surface. The crisis increased the focus of the EC member states in alternative energy research programs. For example, Italy started an exploration program on the solar energy, and that was inserted in the National Energy Program (Programma Energetico Nazionale) of 1977. In the same way, Denmark became a pioneer of wind energy, developing the community wind projects in the 1970s, in the aftermath of the oil shock, then followed by Germany and the United Kingdom.
Through the analysis of archival materials from Historical Archives of the European Union, the project wants to provide a comprehensive historical account of the energy transition in the European Community, focusing on the ways energy and environmental concerns were addressed at the Community level and how these early responses set the stage for future renewable energy policies.
Short Bio
Since 2025, Maria Sole Barbieri is a Fellow at Project House Europe at Ludwig–Maximilian University in Munich. She is also a PhD Researcher in the History Department at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, where she has been conducting her doctoral research since 2020. She recently submitted her PhD thesis, titled National and Transnational Responses to the 1973 Oil Crisis: France, Italy, and the European Community, and is currently awaiting her viva. Her thesis explores the failure of the European Community’s energy policy and the energy strategies of France and Italy in the aftermath of the 1973 oil shock.
Throughout her academic career, Maria Sole Barbieri has been actively involved in teaching and research. She served as a tutor in the International History course at the University of Bologna for the academic years 2023/2024 and 2024/2025. Additionally, she was an enseignante vacataire in the Master’s program Énergie, Écologie, Société at Université Paris Cité in Paris, France. In 2023, she was an exchange researcher at SciencesPo Paris. Maria Sole Barbieri holds degrees in history and contemporary history from the University of Pisa, where she also participated in an exchange program at the University of Leicester (UK).
Her research interests focus on energy history, international relations, European integration, and transatlantic relations. Building on her doctoral thesis, her research project examines the intersection of environmental and energy history, specifically the ways the oil shock influenced the development of renewable energy policies in Europe. This research aims to offer a comprehensive historical analysis of the energy transition in the European Community, focusing on how energy and environmental concerns were addressed at the Community level.