The Ambiguities of the “Green” Industrial Revolution at the Carling Industrial Platform: Toward A New, Stymied Cycle of Territorial Revitalization through Decarbonization?

Since the early 2020s, the Carling platform (Moselle coal basin) has experienced a new structural turning point in its development trajectory. This chemical site has witnessed a multiplication of industrial projects characterized by a common criterion: the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. These decarbonization efforts are reshaping the structural process of reconversion affecting its surrounding territory and have led to the emergence of a new recovery model that seeks to reconcile “green” reindustrialization with territorial (re)development. However, most of these initiatives remain stalled at the project stage, revealing the risk of a dual operational failure of these interconnected objectives of ecological and territorial transitions. This communication therefore aims at clarifying the factors underlying this constrained territorialization of industrial decarbonization imperatives, with particular attention to the contemporary recompositions of proximity relations between industry and territory, and their re-inscription within the long-term development trajectory of this platform.