the government sets new objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in France

These are essential documents to enable France to accelerate the fight against climate change and the energy transition, which will have concrete consequences on the daily lives of the French, in terms of transport, housing, or food. The government put out for public consultation, Monday November 4 and until December 15, the two tools for steering the country's climate and energy policy: the 3^e national low carbon strategy (SNBC) and the 3^e multiannual energy programming (PPE). The first relates to 2030, the second to 2035 and both aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

These roadmaps display high ambitions, but questions remain about France's capacity to meet them. Their presentation is more than a year late due to numerous postponements and the dissolution of the National Assembly in June. In recent months, the High Council for Climate has repeatedly warned against “risks of a decline in the ambition of climate policy” lack of adoption of these texts, which had already been the subject of consultations.

“Go faster and further” : the SNBC charts the path towards a reduction in gross greenhouse gas emissions no longer by 40% but by 50% between 1990 and 2030, a consequence of the new European climate ambition. Carbon emissions must therefore be reduced by around 5% per year between 2022 and 2030, compared to 2% annual reduction on average from 2017 to 2022.

“Battle Plan”

Despite the good results for 2023 (− 5.8%), the march is still high: France must go from 373 million tonnes of CO equivalent₂ (MtéqCO₂), excluding imports, in 2023 at 270 MteqCO₂ in 2030. “Over the last six months, the decline has slowed down a little, which may be due to the weather but which shows the need to accelerate further”recognized Agnès Pannier-Runacher. The Minister for Ecological Transition, who launched the public consultation alongside François Durovray and Olga Givernet, respectively deputy ministers responsible for transport and energy.

To achieve this, the government details its “battle plan” sector by sector. In transport, the most polluting (a third of emissions), the government wants to reduce emissions by 31% between 2022 and 2030, a colossal effort when they have so far stagnated. It is banking on numerous levers between now and the end of the decade, including the progression of electric vehicles (to reach two thirds of new vehicle sales), charging stations (400,000 public compared to 130,000 today) and a sharp increase in public transport (+ 25%). But also a doubling of rail freight and the network of cycle paths (to reach 100,000 km), control of demand thanks to teleworking or even progressively increased carbon pricing for air transport.

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