Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term, “that’s 38% less CO2 emissions in energy production since 2017 … 38% less!”, hammered the Minister of Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, interviewed Tuesday, January 11, on BFMTV. But the minister is taking a little shortcut. If the figure is correct, it relates exclusively to the drop observed for electricity production alone.
Contacted, Baraba Pompili’s cabinet confirms that the minister made a small mistake and was in fact referring to CO2 emissions in the production of electricity, and not in the whole of energy production. If we look only at the production of electricity, the drop in CO2 emissions for this energy is indeed 38% between 2017 and 2020.
According to figures from Interprofessional technical center for studies of atmospheric pollution (Citepa), the body that produces benchmark data in this area (Citepa, Secten inventory report, 2021), between 2017 and 2020 France went from nearly 29 million tonnes of CO2 emitted by electricity production to 18 million, or, indeed, a drop of 38%. It should be noted, however, that the Minister takes into account the data for the year 2020, which are still only an estimate. These data still need to be consolidated, specifies Citepa.
But is this 38% drop to be credited with the action of Emmanuel Macron’s government? Yes, but only in part. Two coal-fired power stations were closed under the mandate of Emmanuel Macron, yet they emit a lot of CO2. This decision therefore made it possible to reduce the carbon bill of electricity production in France. But the Covid crisis has also caused a drop in activity and therefore in energy needs. As Eurostat figures confirm, it is not only in France that CO2 emissions have fallen recently. The data shows that there has indeed been a global trend related to the pandemic.
It should not be believed either that the drop in CO2 emissions in the production of electricity was only initiated under the mandate of Emmanuel Macron. The trend is not new. According to the Sdes, the statistical service of the Ministry of Ecology, the reduction of carbon in the energy consumed has been in progress since the 90s. This started first with the development of nuclear power, and was accentuated. from 2005 with the boom in renewable energies.
As a result, as Citepa data shows once again, over nearly 30 years, CO2 emissions from electricity production have fallen by more than 50%.