GHG Emissions by Sector - France

Metropolitan France emitted approximately 407 Mt CO2eq in 2021, down from 461 Mt in 2016 - a reduction of 11.6% over five years. This data, produced by CITEPA and published by ADEME on data.gouv.fr, covers 7 activity sectors across 13 metropolitan regions and 99 departments over three reference years: 2016, 2018, and 2021. Transport is the leading sector at 134 Mt CO2eq, representing 33% of the total in 2021, followed by industry excluding energy (83 Mt, 20%) and agriculture (76 Mt, 19%).

While six of seven sectors show a decline, the waste sector stands out as a notable exception: its emissions increased by 47% between 2016 and 2021 (from 14,223 to 20,906 kt CO2eq). In contrast, the energy sector shows the largest reduction at -51.6% (from 20,421 to 9,874 kt CO2eq). Regionally, Ile-de-France records the sharpest drop (-19.9%), while Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur is the only metropolitan region with rising emissions (+10.6%), driven by its industry and energy sectors. The three largest emitting regions (Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, Hauts-de-France, Ile-de-France) account for 34% of national emissions in 2021.

The dataset presents several methodological limitations. First, the three reference years are not strictly comparable: inventory methodologies evolved between 2016 and 2021, particularly for waste accounting. Second, commune-level (52 MB) and EPCI data are available but not used here due to volume constraints. Third, overseas territories (DOM-TOM) only have data for 2021, excluding them from temporal comparisons.