An early Industrial Revolution needs cheap energy. Fossil fuels and coal were essential to it.

Just make fossil energy hard to find, or too expensive to extract, and all economic incentives to start changing all the technology and all the society will vanish. First steam engines were placed in coal mines to extract water from them and avoid flooding. They were made just because it was cheaper to use coal powered machines than using animal or human powered devices.

Societies before the Industrial Revolution were dependent on the annual cycle of plant photosynthesis for both heat and mechanical energy. The quantity of energy available each year was therefore limited, and economic growth was necessarily constrained. In the Industrial Revolution, energy usage increased massively and output rose accordingly. The energy source continued to be plant photosynthesis, but accumulated over a geological age in the form of coal. This poses a problem for the future. Fossil fuels are a depleting stock, whereas in pre-industrial time the energy source, though limited, was renewed each year.

Energy and the English Industrial Revolution E. A Wrigley Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 2013.

From these first uses, steam engines were developed into sea and land vehicles. Other kind of engines, like internal combustion ones, were developed only after fossil fuel powered vehicles became relevant.

If there were not any cheap coal or petrol, engineers still could develop engines powered by olive oil or alcohol, but they would not be economical enough to substitute horses, oxes or wind. Society would not change abruptly so there would not be any "revolution". Greeks and romans knew some sort of steam engines but their slave powered economy didn't need any development of these machines.

Ways to make fossil fuels impractical:

Centuries before the revolution you could seed coal and oil deposits with genetically engineered bacteria that would metabolize that energy and turn it into useless carbon dioxide and carbohydrates. Manna mines could be created but not fuels.

An early Industrial Revolution needs cheap energy. Fossil fuels and coal were essential to it.

Just make fossil energy hard to find, or too expensive to extract, and all economic incentives to start changing all the technology and all the society will vanish. First steam engines were placed in coal mines to extract water from them and avoid flooding. They were made just because it was cheaper to use coal powered machines than using animal or human powered devices.

Societies before the Industrial Revolution were dependent on the annual cycle of plant photosynthesis for both heat and mechanical energy. The quantity of energy available each year was therefore limited, and economic growth was necessarily constrained. In the Industrial Revolution, energy usage increased massively and output rose accordingly. The energy source continued to be plant photosynthesis, but accumulated over a geological age in the form of coal. This poses a problem for the future. Fossil fuels are a depleting stock, whereas in pre-industrial time the energy source, though limited, was renewed each year.

Energy and the English Industrial Revolution E. A Wrigley Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 2013.

From these first uses, steam engines were developed into sea and land vehicles. Other kind of engines, like internal combustion ones, were developed only after fossil fuel powered vehicles became relevant.

If there were not any cheap coal or petrol, engineers still could develop engines powered by olive oil or alcohol, but they would not be economical enough to substitute horses, oxen or wind. Society would not change abruptly so there would not be any "revolution". Greeks and romans knew some sort of steam engines but their slave powered economy didn't need any development of these machines.

Ways to make fossil fuels impractical:

Centuries before the revolution you could seed coal and oil deposits with genetically engineered bacteria that would metabolize that energy and turn it into useless carbon dioxide and carbohydrates. Manna mines could be created but not fuels.

An early Industrial Revolution needs cheap energy. Fossil fuels and coal were essential to it.

Just make fossil energy hard to find, or too expensive to extract, and all economic incentives to start changing all the technology and all the society will vanish. First steam engines were placed in coal mines to extract water from them and avoid flooding. They were made just because it was cheaper to use coal powered machines than using animal or human powered devices.

Societies before the Industrial Revolution were dependent on the annual cycle of plant photosynthesis for both heat and mechanical energy. The quantity of energy available each year was therefore limited, and economic growth was necessarily constrained. In the Industrial Revolution, energy usage increased massively and output rose accordingly. The energy source continued to be plant photosynthesis, but accumulated over a geological age in the form of coal. This poses a problem for the future. Fossil fuels are a depleting stock, whereas in pre-industrial time the energy source, though limited, was renewed each year.

Energy and the English Industrial Revolution E. A Wrigley Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 2013.

From these first uses, steam engines were developed into sea and land vehicles. Other kind of engines, like internal combustion ones, were developed only after fossil fuel powered vehicles became relevant.

If there were not any cheap coal or petrol, engineers still could develop engines powered by olive oil or alcohol, but they would not be economical enough to substitute horses, oxes or wind. Society would not change abruptly so there would not be any "revolution".

An early Industrial Revolution needs cheap energy. Fossil fuels and coal were essential to it.

Just make fossil energy hard to find, or too expensive to extract, and all economic incentives to start changing all the technology and all the society will vanish. First steam engines were placed in coal mines to extract water from them and avoid flooding. They were made just because it was cheaper to use coal powered machines than using animal or human powered devices.

Societies before the Industrial Revolution were dependent on the annual cycle of plant photosynthesis for both heat and mechanical energy. The quantity of energy available each year was therefore limited, and economic growth was necessarily constrained. In the Industrial Revolution, energy usage increased massively and output rose accordingly. The energy source continued to be plant photosynthesis, but accumulated over a geological age in the form of coal. This poses a problem for the future. Fossil fuels are a depleting stock, whereas in pre-industrial time the energy source, though limited, was renewed each year.

Energy and the English Industrial Revolution E. A Wrigley Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 2013.

From these first uses, steam engines were developed into sea and land vehicles. Other kind of engines, like internal combustion ones, were developed only after fossil fuel powered vehicles became relevant.

If there were not any cheap coal or petrol, engineers still could develop engines powered by olive oil or alcohol, but they would not be economical enough to substitute horses, oxes or wind. Society would not change abruptly so there would not be any "revolution". Greeks and romans knew some sort of steam engines but their slave powered economy didn't need any development of these machines.

Ways to make fossil fuels impractical:

Centuries before the revolution you could seed coal and oil deposits with genetically engineered bacteria that would metabolize that energy and turn it into useless carbon dioxide and carbohydrates. Manna mines could be created but not fuels.