Greenhouse gas emissions fell by 2.5% in France in 2022

Europe 1 with AFP 19:08 p.m., April 03, 2023

Greenhouse gas emissions fell by 2.5% in France last year, with a sharper decline at the end of the year, according to provisional official figures published Monday by Citepa, the body mandated to carry out the French inventory of emissions. "There is a return to the year-on-year decline in emissions with the end of the post-Covid-19 rebound effect," comments Citepa, which estimates 2022 emissions at 408 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, 10 million tonnes less than the previous year.

A sharp decline from October

Over the first nine months of the year, these emissions responsible for global warming had almost stagnated (-0.3%) compared to the same period of 2021, according to Citepa data published at the end of last year. This stagnation was due to a greater use of fossil fuels to compensate for the difficulties of the nuclear fleet, but also to transport. But "from October to December 2022, monthly emissions are down sharply compared to those of 2021 (-9% in October, -11% in November, -5% in December)," Citepa said Monday in its latest publication.

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However, these trends lag behind the decline needed for the France to meet its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. It has committed to reducing its emissions by 40% by 2030, an ambition that must be strengthened to take into account new European targets (-55%). According to the High Council for Climate (HCC), to achieve these objectives, the country would have to double the rate of reduction of its emissions to about 16 million tons of CO2 equivalent (-4.7%) per year over the period 2022-2030.