In 2019, France passed the Law on Energy and Climate to introduce the objective of carbon neutrality by 2050 and lower the country’s carbon emissions as part of its commitment to the 2015 Paris Agreement. 

The National low carbon strategy was updated in 2020, taking into account this new objective of carbon neutrality by 2050. This objective implies a division of greenhouse gas emissions on French territory of more than 6 compared to 1990. The ambition is therefore raised in comparison to the first strategy, which aimed at the “factor 4”, i.e. a 75% reduction of its GHG emissions by 2050 compared to 1990. 

In response to the economic impact of the current health crisis (COVID-19 pandemic), the French government presented a recovery plan in which green transition is crucial. To this end, transport decarbonisation is a key measure of the plan with 11.5 billion euros devoted to it.  This amount will enable the greening of daily mobility through support for active mobility such as cycling, but also by developing multimodal transport solutions allowed by the growth of the rail network. Financial support will additionally promote the green conversion of the vehicle fleet and contribute in greening ports. In the upcoming years, investment will also be made in research and development enabling the preparation of future generations of aircraft (ultra-low energy consumption and/or switch to hydrogen as a primary energy source) and of future vehicles: connected, decarbonised and manufactured in France. 

In addition, France is supporting the growth in the use of EVs on its territory: infrastructures will be adapted to this new zero-emission mode of transport with the aim of a total of 100,000 publicly accessible charging points by the end of 2021.The French goal is to ban the sale of passenger cars using carbon-based fossil fuels by 2040.