New climate roadmap. This Monday, May 22, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne presented the government's action plan to accelerate the reduction of France's greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, the government intends to target as a priority the change of boilers, the decarbonization of factories, but also transport. This project proposes for the first time quantified objectives for the major sectors of the economy by 2030.
To comply with the European objectives developed over the past two years on the path to carbon neutrality by 2050, France wants to reduce its emissions by 50% by 2030, compared to 1990, to reach 270 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. per year (MtCO2e/year), compared to 408 million in 2022, which means reducing them at twice the rate of today. This plan, which must still be discussed with the sectors and pass through a climate-energy law in Parliament, relies in particular on the electrification of cars and carpooling, but also on an effort on logistics (electrification or switch to hydrogen vehicles, transfer to river and rail, etc. in the context of a boom in home deliveries.
Transport forms the first item of emissions in the territory (about a third of the total) and traffic is constantly increasing. The project presented by Élisabeth Borne also relies on the gradual disappearance of oil-fired boilers, in the tertiary and residential sectors, as already provided for by the law which prohibits new equipment... But also, new, it aims to eliminate new equipment in gas boilers, according to methods not yet defined. An annual saving of 26 MtCO2e is expected. In industry, the plan aims for a gain of 24 MtCO2e in 2030 thanks to the decarbonization of large sites, and -11 MtCO2e on the rest of the industrial fabric. This panorama was established by the Prime Minister's services, which since 2022 have had a general secretariat for ecological planning, headed by Antoine Pellion and made up of around fifteen advisers.
To achieve the French objective of -50% emissions in 2030 compared to 1990, while France is only at -25%, an effort will be required of all: "nobody can hide", says -on to Matignon. But "we ask a little of the small and a lot of the big", with about half of the emission reduction efforts carried out by companies, a quarter by households and a quarter by communities, it adds. According to Matignon, half of the identified levers are already engaged (support for the purchase of electric cars, the greening of industry, law on renewable energies, etc.).
For the rest, after the publication of this project on Monday, a series of thematic meetings is planned between ministers and stakeholders (energy, agriculture, etc.), to refine this plan by the end of June and the holding of a "council of ecological planning" around Emmanuel Macron. Because the major question of funding will arise, whether to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles or the replacement of boilers in homes. According to Matignon, half of the identified levers are already engaged (support for the purchase of electric cars, the greening of industry, law on renewable energies, etc.).
