Abstract

Fossil energy is the main source of power and an important source of raw materials for modern industry, which promotes the progress of modern technology. However, with the increasing seriousness of global climate change and environmental pollution, energy transformation has become an inevitable trend, and countries are trying to promote the development of renewable energy. With the continuous progress of technology and the expansion of the market, the research on the translation of energy texts has become particularly important. Since energy texts are characterized by a large number of technical terms, complex technical content, and diversity of target readers, the translator is required to have not only a solid language foundation but also relevant knowledge and background in the field of energy. This translation report of Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less (Chapter 5), guided by Skopos Theory, explores the applicability of the three principles of Skopos Theory in this translation task. For example, since the original text contains many professional terms in the field of energy, the translator ensures the accuracy of information transmission by establishing a terminology base and using nominalization structures and compound words. For some complex sentence structures, the translator flexibly uses literal translation and free translation according to the context and expression habits. For some fixed collocations and metaphorical expressions, the translator gives priority to free translation to ensure the fluency and coherence of the translation. Through this translation task, the translator moved beyond the constraints of literal translation by focusing on three key aspects: terminology standardization, sentence restructuring, and audience adaptation. Compared to conventional approaches that often result in terminological inconsistencies and convoluted phrasing, this practice, guided by the Skopos Theory, has enhanced the readability of the translation while preserving source-text fidelity. This task also enabled the translator to have a more systematic understanding of professional knowledge in the energy field. Detailed case analyses of fossil energy text translations analyzed in this report aim to provide specific term processing methods and sentence optimization ideas for scholars in the field of scientific and technological translation.