France’s climate progress stalls, as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions has slowed down for the second year running in 2025, raising concerns among both politicians and environmental groups, as the country is not on track to meet its climate targets. Recent estimates suggest that only limited progress has been made in decreasing carbon output, which is not enough to reach the long-term goals.

Slower Emission Cuts in 2025

Preliminary estimates indicate that France’s greenhouse gas emissions decreased by about 1.6% in 2025 compared to 2024, which is a slower rate than in previous years and is much lower than what is needed to meet the country’s climate commitments. While this decrease represents roughly 5.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, specialists say that the rate is not sufficient. To meet the 2030 climate target of cutting emissions by about half from 1990 levels, an annual decrease of 4.6% is required, which is almost three times greater than the current reduction.

The data, gathered by Citepa, the organization responsible for tracking France’s greenhouse gas inventory for the ecology ministry, shows a trend of decreasing momentum. After drops of 3.9% in 2022 and 6.8% in 2023, emission cuts slowed to 1.8% in 2024. In 2025, there was only a slight improvement, despite changes in methods and updated calculations.

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Challenges in Different Sectors

Some reductions were noted in heavy industry and farming, but progress was limited in areas such as transport, buildings, and energy production, where reducing emissions has proven more difficult. Even though France relies heavily on low-carbon electricity from nuclear and renewable sources, other sectors are struggling to cut emissions quickly enough, according to experts.

Transport, which is responsible for almost one-third of the country’s emissions, experienced only minor reductions as a result of lower fuel consumption. In a similar manner, the declines in emissions from residential and commercial buildings were quite limited, and emissions from energy generation were essentially unchanged in 2025, thus continuing the challenge to achieve deeper reductions.

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International Context and Pressure

France’s climate progress stalls, mirroring broader problems faced by developed economies in achieving deep emission cuts amid economic pressures and shifting policy goals. Similarly, small decreases in neighboring countries and other regions show how difficult it can be to maintain decreased carbon emissions without strong regulations and market incentives.

In December, French climate officials came up with a revised National Low-Carbon Strategy, which sets out the path to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. However, experts caution that, without a strong political will backed by the availability of huge financial resources, it would be merely a turn of the page of a very ambitious target, and the real, big, and permanent structural changes could not be brought about in the various sectors of the economy.

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