Despite the set of decarbonisation targets published in 2023, France — Germany's competitor — continues to focus on building new nuclear reactors. The aforementioned targets begin with a phase-out of fossil fuel use, although the new reactors will most likely cost more than anticipated. Whether the pace of development is too slow for some, or the targets not ambitious enough for others, the European Union institutions are nevertheless keeping a close watch on France. Following the collapse of the previous government at the end of 2024, political instability also prevails in France under Prime Minister François Bayrou. Despite the agreement reached on the 2025 budget, doubts remain as to whether the country will be able to deliver a broad range of policy goals on time.
On 13 December 2024, François Bayrou replaced Michel Barnier as Prime Minister of France. Under the Bayrou government, the word “climate” has disappeared from the job title of the minister for the ecological transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Agnès Pannier-Runacher). Energy, which had been within her remit, has now been entrusted to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance. Many analysts consider that the general policy speech Bayrou gave on 14 January took far too “weak a stance” on ecological and climate matters. The Prime Minister's predecessor, Barnier — an advocate of nuclear energy policy and a critic of wind power from the conservative Republicans party (LR) — was appointed Prime Minister on 5 September, but did not last long: after just two months his government collapsed over budget disputes. In February 2025, Bayrou's new government managed to adopt a new budget, and it survived the ensuing no-confidence vote despite long-running objections to the government's financial planning.
French President Emmanuel Macron had called snap parliamentary elections in early July 2024, after his party's defeat in the European Parliament vote on 9 June. The first snap elections in more than 25 years took many of the president's political allies and opponents in France and Europe by surprise, and opened up the possibility of forming the first far-right government, which could have been led by the far-right National Rally (RN). In the event, RN came only third, while first place went to the new left-wing alliance (the New Popular Front), which supports the ecological and climate transition, although its leaders may differ on the means and, in particular, on the place of nuclear energy.
France, like other EU member states, is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, which in 2023 accounted for almost half of its primary energy consumption — 30% of that being oil and 13% natural gas. Coal plays only a minor role. Nuclear energy accounts for roughly 40%, and renewables for 16%. Primary energy production in 2023 was 13.3 per cent higher than in 2022, in particular thanks to the recovery of nuclear generation. Energy-related CO₂ emissions have fallen (-5.9%), mainly because consumption of fossil fuels, especially natural gas, has dropped very substantially. Primary generation of renewable electricity rose sharply (+27.4%), thanks to a considerable increase in installed capacity and more favourable weather conditions.
A fall in emissions and energy production
According to Citepa, the independent emissions reporting body of the French Ministry of the Environment, in 2023 the country reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 4.8% compared with 2022. In the energy sector the drop in emissions came after a “return to normal”, as the restarting of temporarily closed nuclear power plants provided an additional 41.5 TWh and, to a lesser extent, thanks to greater hydropower generation (+9.2 TWh) as well as wind and solar generation (+15.2 TWh for the two sources combined).
In 2023, compared with the previous year, France's primary energy production rose by 13%, making France a net exporter of electricity. Energy production increased thanks to the recovery of nuclear generation and to growth in the volume of renewable energy. After being in 2022 Europe's largest net importer of electricity because of unstable nuclear generation, in 2023 it became the largest net exporter, confirming its standing as the leading electricity producer in the 27-member bloc. With 89 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity exports in 2024, France beat its all-time record of 77 TWh, set in 2002.
Since roughly two-thirds of France's electricity is generated by nuclear power, the emissions intensity of the country's energy sector is lower than in several other European countries, such as Germany.
Problems with nuclear power plant infrastructure and the energy crisis prompted the government to pass legislation to speed up the deployment of renewables and to accelerate the construction of new nuclear reactors. In January 2024 the French government announced that the country must build more than 14 new nuclear power plants — compared with the six planned up to that point. It was announced that each of them could be built within 6 years.
In September 2023 the French government presented its ecological planning strategy, which aims to cut the country's emissions on the basis of energy efficiency, sufficiency and other measures, as well as the use of nuclear and renewable energy. It includes a pledge to increase annual public funding from the state budget for financing the transition to 40 billion euros in 2024, and a commitment to end the use of coal power by 2027.
France's pace of renewable energy deployment is too slow
The plans that together make up France's future energy and climate strategy — namely, the National Low-Carbon Strategy (SNBC), the PPE 2024-2035, the new planning law (LPEC) and the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (PNACC) — were due to be adopted in mid-2024. In October 2024 Michel Barnier presented the French government's first multi-year strategy for financing the ecological transition (SPAFTE). However, its National Low-Carbon Strategy has yet to be updated. That government drew criticism when it announced that it would postpone the inclusion of renewable energy targets in its proposals.
Experts have also found that France's pace of renewable energy deployment is too slow to meet European rules. In February 2024 the European Union's Energy Commissioner, Kadri Simson, called on France to “significantly raise its renewable energy ambition to at least 44%” of gross final energy consumption by 2030, and to set clear targets in its National Energy and Climate Plan.
The 54 billion euro investment plan “France 2030”, launched by the state in 2021, aims to improve the competitiveness of the country's industry, encourage investment and innovation and support the transition to low carbon emissions, among other priorities. The government plans to invest half of the funding from the “France 2030” programme, which aims to improve industrial competitiveness during the energy and ecological transition, mainly in order to decarbonise the economy. According to a study by Business France, the country retained its economic appeal last year for international investors, who put money into 205 projects aimed directly at decarbonising the economy.
In the autumn France adopted the Green Industry Bill, which aims to increase funding for green industry, make it easier and faster to establish new sectors and develop abandoned sites, and to make public procurement greener. This package also introduced the Green Industry Investment Tax Credit (C3IV).
After a series of heatwaves, floods, forest fires and droughts in recent years, France restructured its strategy for adapting to the effects of climate change, incorporating proposals on adapting to a “temperature rise of 4 degrees Celsius”. This is a sign that the French government is prepared to plan for the worst-case climate change scenario.
The key issues at present
Fossil fuels — according to the French organisations Data for Good and Éclaircies , France is Europe's biggest backer of “carbon bomb” extraction projects and, with 154 billion dollars in investment, trails only China and the United States.
Climate protests — protests by extreme environmental activists in France are considered more radical than in neighbouring countries, in particular the actions against the creation of mega-basins for agro-industrial complexes (mega-basins are huge artificial reservoirs, sometimes as large as 18 hectares, lined with plastic insulating material and filled with pumped groundwater) in early 2023. However, in November France's highest court overturned the dissolution of the environmental activist group “Les Soulèvements de la Terre”, which the government had previously imposed for spreading “eco-terrorist” views. Plans for drilling eight new oil wells in the Gironde region have sparked fresh protests.
Energy sufficiency — after the country's efforts to save energy and avoid power cuts in the winter of 2022, the government proposed an energy-saving plan across all sectors to deliver further savings (for example, higher penalties were introduced for high-emission vehicles, along with lower speed limits on motorways and restrictions on indoor temperatures in buildings). In early 2024, however, France cut the 1 billion euro allocation previously earmarked for its energy-efficient renovation scheme.
Sustainable finance — in October 2023 French lawmakers dropped the mandatory "Say on Climate ” measures, which formed part of the Green Industry Bill adopted by the government in the autumn and would have made France the first country in the world in which listed companies would have been required, by means of such resolutions, to consult their shareholders on their climate strategies. Change is under way in France too, and a gradual shift away from the previous “green paradigm” is becoming visible.