(Clean Energy Wire) France awaits key climate legislation, government keeps focus on nuclear

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Despite a set of fresh new decarbonisation goals published last year, starting with the progressive phaseout of fossil fuels, France seems more focused on deploying new nuclear reactors – which will likely cost more than expected – than making up for the gap between the development of its clean energy sources and those of other countries in the European Union. Whether the development pace is too slow for some or the targets not ambitious enough for others, the EU executive is keeping France under close watch. The government pledged to pursue its efforts in adapting to climate change with a series of proposals set to be adopted mid-2024. This regularly updated factsheet provides an overview of France's efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. 

Key background

France, like all other EU member states, is heavily reliant on fossil fuels, which accounted for almost half of its primary energy consumption in 2022, with oil accounting for 30 percent and natural gas for 15 percent. Coal plays a minor role.

According to the French environment ministry’s independent emissions reporting organisation Citepa, the country reduced its greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 by 4.8 percent compared to 2022. The energy sector saw a drop in emissions following “a return to normal” with the recommissioning of temporarily closed nuclear power plants bringing an additional 41.5 TWh to the grid and, to a lesser extent, thanks to higher hydro (+9.2 TWh) as well as wind and solar power generation (+15.2 TWh for the two sources combined). 

After being the largest net power importer in 2022 on the back of unstable nuclear output, France became the biggest net electricity exporter of Europe in 2023, again showing its role as a key electricity producer in the 27-member bloc.

With around two thirds of France’s electricity being produced by nuclear power, the emissions intensity of the country’s energy sector is lower than those of several other European countries, such as Germany.

A combination of infrastructural issues at its nuclear power plants and the energy crisis last year pushed the government to move ahead with legislation to quicken the deployment of renewables and accelerate the construction of new nuclear reactors. In January, the French government said that the country needed to build more than 14 new nuclear plants – compared to the six planned so far.

The French government is expected to adopt mid-2024 a set of new laws that will constitute its roadmap to reach carbon neutrality and adapt to climate change. It however came under fire when it said that it would postpone the inclusion of renewable energy goals in its proposals, while experts found that France’s renewable deployment pace was too slow to meet EU rules. EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson urged France in February to “significantly raise its ambition on renewable energy sources to at least 44 percent” regarding gross final energy consumption by 2030 and specify clear targets in its National Climate and Energy Plan.

NGOs also revealed that France was Europe’s largest supporter of large-scale “carbon bomb” fossil fuel extraction projects, with French banks having provided 154 billion dollars since 2015 to firms operating the largest projects.

Launched in 2021, the country’s 54-billion-euro investment plan, France 2030, aims at improving the competitiveness of its industry, encourage investments and innovation and support the low-carbon transition, amid other priorities.

France adopted a green industry bill in autumn, which aims at increasing finance for the green industry, facilitate and accelerate the setup of new industries, and develop brownfield sites, as well as making public procurement greener. A green industry investment tax credit (C3IV) was also created as part of the package.

Major transition stories

Fossil fuels – According to data by French NGOs Data for Good and Éclaircies, France is Europe’s largest supporter of “carbon bomb” extraction projects, and – with 154 billion dollars – behind only China and the United States globally.

Climate protests – Climate protests in France have been deemed more radical than in neighbouring countries, which led the French government to say there were risks of public safety following violent protests over megabasins in early 2023. The top French court however cancelled in November the dissolution of environmental activist group “Les Soulèvements de la Terre,” which the government had previously ordered over “eco-terrorism” claims. Plans for drilling eight new oil wells in the Gironde region triggered new protests, as did government plans for the merger of the two bodies responsible for overseeing France’s nuclear power plants (ASN and IRSN) into a single organisation.

Energy sufficiency – Following on from national efforts to save energy and avoid power cuts during the winter 2022, the government proposed an energy sobriety plan across all sectors to ensure further savings (e.g. higher penalties for high-emitting vehicles, speed reductions on highways, or limiting interior temperatures in buildings). However, France cut 1 billion euros of funds from an energy-sufficiency renovation scheme in early 2024.

Decarbonisation strategy – In September 2023, the government unveiled its ecological planning strategy with a view to reducing the country’s emissions based on sufficiency, energy efficiency measures, and the deployment of nuclear and renewable energy. That includes the promise to increase annual public funding from the national budget to finance the transition to a total of 40 billion euros in 2024, and the pledge to end coal power by 2027. The roadmaps which together constitute France’s future energy and climate strategy – that is to say its low-carbon national strategy (SNBC), the PPE 2024-2035, the new planning law (LPEC) and the country’s adaptation plan to climate change (PNACC) – are expected to be adopted mid-2024.

Adaptation strategy – Following a series of heatwaves, floods, wildfires and droughts in recent years, France rebooted its climate change impacts adaptation strategy to include proposals for adaptation to 4 degrees Celsius of warming, the sign that the government is ready to prepare for the worst.

Environmental health – Agricultural workers, who have been protesting across France this year to express their anger over what they see as a poor quality of life, intensified their demonstrations over the EU’s 2023 nature restoration law, which would result in some 4 percent of farmland remaining fallow as member states must introduce environmental measures on a fifth of their land and sea by 2030. In January 2024, the EU executive proposed loosening green farming requirements and a month later, France’s prime minister Gabriel Attal announced a series of measures to ease the agriculture sector’s concerns, including on pesticides, health regulations and subsidies and loans. Meanwhile, the government’s new biodiversity strategy released in November 2023 did not convince all environmental organisations.

Sustainable finance – In October, French legislators backed away from compulsory “Say on Climate” measures which were part of the government’s green industry bill adopted in autumn and would have made France the first country worldwide to require listed companies to consult their shareholders on their climate strategies through such resolutions.

Investment programme – The government plans to invest half of its France 2030 programme aimed at improving its industrial competitiveness for the energy and ecological transition mainly to decarbonise its economy. According to a survey by Business France, the nation maintained last year its economic attractiveness to international investors, who poured money into 205 projects that directly aimed at decarbonising its economy.