“It’s a record year,” said Christophe Béchu, Minister of Ecological Transition, on the set of TF1, Wednesday March 20. Greenhouse gas emissions fell by 4.8% in 2023 compared to 2022, according to provisional figures published Thursday by the Interprofessional Technical Center for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (Citepa), the organization mandated to carry out an inventory of carbon pollution in France. Or “almost the entire decline” recorded “in France between 2012 and 2017”, insisted the minister. 

According to the text, activities in the territory - not counting the carbon footprint of imports - generated 385 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2eq) in 2023, less than in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. In total, over the period 2019-2023, emissions amount to 405 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2eq).

For comparison, Germany emitted 673 MtCO2eq in 2023, or 9.8% less than in 2022, according to the results of the Agora Energiewende expert group.

Also read "1% of CO2 emissions": is France really a small polluter on a global scale?

A decline in all sectors

Other good news to welcome: for the first time, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions concerns all sectors of activity. It is mainly fueled by the energy sector (-14%) with "the increase in the production of carbon-free electricity", above all thanks to the "return of strong nuclear production", then with the increase in production hydroelectric, wind and solar, notes Citepa. This can, however, be explained by the unprecedented situation in 2022 which saw a large part of the nuclear reactors shut down due to maintenance problems.

Emissions also fell by 8% in the industrial sector. The effects mainly “decreases in production”, according to Citepa.

A positive observation, too, in the construction sectors and for households. In addition to the sober behavior of households and businesses and energy renovation projects in a context of rising energy prices, Citepa also explains this good performance by the particularly mild months of January and December which led to a drop in energy prices. use of heating.

The point of concern remains transport, the leading emitting sector with 128 MtCO2eq. If on the roads, emissions are down by around 3%, notably thanks to the rise in fuel prices and the decline in diesel, on the air side emissions have exploded over a year. Domestic flights (+21%) exceed the pre-Covid level, as do international flights (+27%).

Data on emissions from the agriculture and waste sectors will only be available in June. With these results, France is therefore doing better than the objective it set in its national low carbon strategy, its climate roadmap for the period 2019-2023 where it hoped to reach 422 MtCO2e per year. The government, however, raised this threshold after failing to meet its objectives for the previous period, 2015-2018.

Real progress? 

These figures also concern France's gross emissions and not its net emissions - that is to say, those which take into account the absorption of carbon sinks such as forests or peatlands. However, this natural capture is significantly lower than the forecasts of the national low carbon strategy.

In June, the High Council for the Climate estimated that the reduction in French emissions was still “insufficient” in view of its objectives and the accumulated delays. 

If, for Christophe Béchu, these results are "proof", "structurally", that "ecological planning and the measures undertaken are beginning to produce effects", the environmental defense NGOs, above all, highlight results linked to the current situation. “This drop in emissions is mainly due to cyclical effects, unfortunately suffered, mainly linked to increases in energy prices, and therefore to unchosen sobriety”, regrets Cyrielle Denhartigh, the program coordinator of Réseau Action Climat ( Rac).

While the announcement of the government's new low-carbon strategy planned for mid-March was postponed to relaunch a "major public consultation" on this roadmap, the Rac is calling for "structuring public policies" to make these reductions "sustainable". : “remove the barriers to the development of renewable energies”, “encourage the development of small electric vehicles” and “reform taxation in the air sector”.

Because whatever happens, France will have to continue on this trajectory in the coming years to align with the European objective of -55% emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. It is there today at -29%. “This is not at all the time to let our guard down,” conceded Christophe Béchu on TF1.

With AFP

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