2023-10-03 15:56:21
In Saint-Clair-du-Rhône (Isère), January 19, 2022. JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK/AFP
A significant drop but not yet sufficient. According to data communicated Tuesday, October 3 by the Interprofessional Technical Center for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (Citepa), the organization mandated to carry out these measurements, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in France have fallen by 4. 3% in the first half of 2023 compared to the first half of 2022. This is an acceleration compared to previous years.
Between 2022 and 2021, the drop in emissions was only 2.7% over one year. But the trajectory planned by the general secretariat for ecological planning is a little more than 5% per year to achieve the objective set in 2030, that is to say a reduction of 55% in emissions in 2030 compared to to the year 1990.
Three sectors contributed the most to this result. Industry (-10%), energy production (-8%) and buildings (-7%). In terms of heating and industrial production, cyclical causes – the mildness of part of the winter and inflation, in the context of the war in Ukraine – had significant effects, according to Citepa. “For buildings, the drop in heating emissions was very strong at the end of 2022, with the effect of the increase in energy prices” et “at the beginning of 2023, this effect continues” despite a harsher end to winter, announces the organization. Emissions caused by residential heating (…) fell by 8%, with a drop in natural gas consumption in the first half.
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On the industrial side, the sector “must have been so strongly impacted by the energy crisis”with emissions from ferrous metallurgy falling by 22% over the period. “The declines in recent times were more linked to the mild winter and high energy prices which led the industry to temporarily close ovens or certain people to heat less”underlined Tuesday to AFP, Anne Bringault, program director of the Climate Action Network which brings together around forty associations.
Restarting nuclear power plants
This analysis of sobriety is not necessarily shared by the executive. The Ministry of Energy Transition emphasizes that the drop in electricity and gas consumption had already been real in 2022 while households were protected by the energy shield. One way to reduce the impact of the “price effect” in 2023 (the shield still limits the price increase to 15%).
Other causes explain the drop in GHG emissions in France. After a maintenance period, the restart of nuclear power plants also made it possible to produce more carbon-free electricity: the energy sector thus reduced its emissions by 15%, in particular thanks to “a 2.6% increase in nuclear production (…) and lower production from thermal power plants (-17%)”.
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