The French government will unveil a new CO2 emissions equivalent target by the end of 2018 to align it with its pledges in the 2015 Paris Agreement and make France carbon neutral by 2050. It will strengthen requirements for transports, buildings and forestry, after missing its 2016 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target.
According to the French Ministry of Ecology, France emitted 463 Mt of GHG in 2016, i.e. 3.6% more than the expected 447 Mt. These figures are due in particular to the low price of petroleum products, which encourages consumption, as well as the unavailability of some nuclear power plants, which has led to an increased use of coal and gas-fired power plants. This is the first gap with the trajectory defined in the French 2015 Energy Transition Act, which sets a carbon budget every year in order to achieve GHG emissions reduction by 40% between 1990 and 2030 and fourfold between 1990 and 2050.