According to preliminary figures from Citepa, France’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions declined by 0.9% in 2019, from 445 MtCO2eq in 2018 to 441 MtCO2eq in 2019. This is due to a decline in GHG emissions from the residential and tertiary sector (-2.7%, i.e. -2.2 MtCO2eq, with a 2.3% drop for households and a 3.2% decline for services), in the energy sector (-0.7%, including -1.5% for power generation), and in waste processing (-2.2%). In 2019, CO2 emissions dipped by 1%, from 331.5 Mt to 328.2 Mt (-3.3 Mt), while methane emissions contracted by 0.7% (-0.4 MtCO2eq).
The 2019 decline in GHG emissions is lower than in 2018 (-4%) but it confirms a declining trend since 2017. Over the 2014-2017 periods, emissions increased by 0.7%/year on average, after ten years of decline between 2005 and 2014 (-2.2%/year on average). The 2019 GHG emissions are still 4.5% above the National Low Carbon Strategy target.
In April 2020, the French Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition (MEIT) issued two decrees implementing the Multi-annual Energy Plan to 2028 (Programmation pluriannuelle de l’énergie, PPE) and the National Low Carbon Strategy, which were first released in January 2019. The parliament adopted the French Strategy for Energy and Climate (Energy-Climate Act), which is based on these two policies, in September 2019. The French Strategy for Energy and Climate aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. It targets a 16.5% cut in final energy consumption by 2028 (compared to 2012), a 40% reduction in the consumption of fossil fuels by 2030 – instead of the 30% target set in the Energy Transition Act (Loi de transition énergétique, 2015) – and the closure of the last coal-fired power plant by 2022.