Greenhouse gas emissions fell significantly in the first quarter, the organization responsible for establishing the official report on French emissions, Citepa, revealed on Wednesday July 8, thanks to a decline in heating consumption last winter.
National emissions of gases warming the atmosphere fell by 4.8% year-on-year, from 103.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in the first quarter of 2025 to 98.5, a drop of 5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, the organization detailed.
While welcoming “good news”, the Minister for Ecological Transition Monique Barbut indicated that this “should not lead us to relax our efforts”, calling for “an end to our dependence on fossil fuels”. The reduction in national emissions is driven by the residential and tertiary sector, notes Citepa, which explains it mainly by “the decline in heating consumption”.
A trend to be confirmed over time
This sector experienced “a clear decline in fuel consumption in the first quarter”, namely natural gas (– 12.7% compared to the first quarter of the previous year) and domestic fuel oil (– 13.3%), thanks to “a particularly mild winter”. Transport, the leading emitter of greenhouse gas emissions with a third of French emissions, also experienced a decline but more modestly, thanks to a 5.7% drop in diesel sales.
Air transport emissions on domestic routes, on the other hand, increased significantly, by 6.4%. Also in decline, the manufacturing industry and construction, particularly in the areas of agri-food (– 300,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent), chemistry (– 200,000) and ferrous metallurgy (– 200,000).
In 2024 and 2025, greenhouse gas emissions marked time, with respective decreases of 3% and 2.1%, in the wake of more notable decreases in 2022 (– 6.8%) and 2023 (– 3.9%). The decline in emissions for the first quarter is slightly less than in a first estimate in mid-June, which then showed a decline of 5.2%.
