Dor the past few years, according to the International Energy Agency, in almost all industrialized countries, greenhouse gas emissions have been falling – a fall that remains too slow, but still a drop. In France, however, there remains a sector whose emissions are constantly increasing: that of transport.
Given the meager measures currently taken by governments, the European Environment Agency estimates, according to data published in October 2022, that this increase will continue until 2025and that in 2030 the sector’s emissions in Europe will still remain 9% higher than their 1990 level. While the French government has just presented its new climate plan, with increased ambitions, it is to be feared that this plan will not remain a dead letter if we do not tackle the decarbonization of the road.
If the carbon footprint of this sector seems so irreducible, it is largely because of road transport. At the global level, whether it concerns people or goods, it represents, according to the International Energy Agency, 76% of transport-related emissions, and the proportion is roughly the same in Europe. In France, it is the main source of emissions, with nearly 31% of the country’s annual emissions, according to the report Sector of the Interprofessional Technical Center for the Study of Atmospheric Pollution (Citepa).
Above all, it is the only sector whose emissions have increased since 1990. Worsening fact: the reversal has not even begun, as two reports have just underlined in quick succession. In its conclusions, published on April 12, the National Assembly fact-finding mission on monitoring the commitments made by France in the COPs estimates that emissions increased by 10% between 1990 and 2019, despite periods of confinement. Citepa also published in May a report confirming that this trend continued in 2022 with a further increase of +2% compared to 2021. However, it must be said frankly: if our emissions trajectories remain absolutely insufficient to hope to achieve the objectives of the Paris, it is largely because of this unrestrained increase in emissions from road transport.
No more procrastinating
It is clear that the road remains a blind spot in public policy, particularly in France, by the government’s own admission: Clément Beaune, Minister of Transport, recognized at a conference last January that “the road is undoubtedly a great unthought of the ecological transition”.
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