PARIS, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- France's greenhouse gas emissions fell in 2025 but remained far below the pace required to meet the country's climate goals, according to provisional data released Tuesday.
The Interprofessional Technical Centre for Studies on Air Pollution (Citepa), an independent body responsible for monitoring the country's emissions, said that France's total greenhouse gas emissions in 2025 are estimated at 363.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, down about 1.6 percent from 2024.
While the decline confirms a downward trend, the reduction is "clearly insufficient" compared with the targets set in France's third version of the National Low-Carbon Strategy (SNBC 3), published in December 2025, it said.
Under the SNBC 3 roadmap, France must cut its emissions at an average annual rate of 4.6 percent to stay on track to meet its 2030 climate commitments, Citepa said.
Monique Barbut, French minister of ecological transition, acknowledged that the pace of emissions reduction remains inadequate.
The decline in emissions in 2025 is an encouraging signal, "but it is not enough," Barbut said in a statement released by the ministry.
She added that 2026 "must be a year of action" to put France back on track toward its climate commitments.
According to the French ecological transition ministry, one of the main objectives of SNBC 3 is to halve territorial greenhouse gas emissions excluding carbon sinks by 2030 compared with 1990 levels. ■