After a significant decline in 2023, the drop in greenhouse gas emissions in France shows signs of slowing down in 2024, with even a slight increase in the third quarter, driven by buildings and transport.
From July to September, French greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increased by 0.5% compared to summer 2023, after a drop of 5% and 2.2% during the first two quartersannounced Friday Citepa, the organization mandated to draw up France’s carbon footprint.
This slowdown “reminds us that we must not let our guard down”even if “fortunately we are still on the right trajectory” to achieve the objective of reduce France’s emissions by 50% by 2030 compared to 1990, underlined Friday the Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, cited by theAFP.
Conversely, this slowdown “should act as a real shock to the government”reacted the Climate Action Networkthrough its program director Anne Bringault.
“Political instability and the brakes, even the cessation of ecological transition policies and budget cuts are putting our climate goals at risk“ she declared.
A boom in September
The slowdown in the decline comes from construction and transport sectorswhose emissions have started to rise again.
The 3rd quarter saw in particular an increase in road traffic emissions (+1.1% compared to 2023).
On this subject, the minister once again raised the hypothesis a tightening of the conditions governing the renewal of companies’ automobile fleets.
“Companies buy half as many electric cars as households and so they don’t play the game. We’ll have to push them to play the game.”declared Ms. Pannier-Runacher.
But it is above all the construction sector which weighs down the balance sheet, with an increase of 11.8% in the 3rd trimester, because of a jump in heating emissions in September.
On the good news side, the energy sector still contributes to the reduction dynamic (-12.9%), thanks to a rarer use of fossil fuels in the production of electricity.
Another positive point, domestic air transport sees his shows reduce by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter and 4.2% from January to September, amplifying the decline in 2023 over this period (-3.5%).
