Country Review

FRANCE

France is a net energy importer, with its total energy consumption exceeding its production by a very large margin. The difference between its energy production and consumption has been mostly due to its oil imports. France's energy production and consumption have both been gradually increasing over the past decade, and now are about 20% greater than they were at the start of the 1990s.

France has only relatively small petroleum reserves (estimated at 148 million barrels at the beginning of 2004), located in the Paris basin and in the Aquitaine region. France is presently the third-greatest oil-consuming country in Europe (behind Germany and Russia), and tenth-greatest in the world (accounting for about 2.5% of the world's total petroleum consumption).

France has limited natural gas reserves, estimated at the beginning of 2004 at slightly more than 500 billion cubic feet, which are located mostly in the south-western part of the country. France is presently the 13th-greatest consumer of natural gas in the world (accounting for about 1.7% of the world's total consumption) and natural gas presently accounts for about 15% of all energy consumed in France.

France has relatively small coal reserves, estimated at about 40 million tons. Coal mining in France has been on the decline for decades, and in 2004 was phased-out altogether in favour of cheaper imported coal. Even though coal still represents about 5% of France's energy mix, coal consumption has also been on the decline, with coal having been largely supplanted by nuclear power for electricity generation over the past four decades France is the third-greatest electricity generator and consumer in Europe, ranking seventh world-wide in electricity generation (accounting for about 3.5% of the world total) and eighth world-wide in electricity consumption (accounting for about 2.9% of the world total). More than three-quarters of France's electricity is now generated by nuclear power. France generates significantly more electricity than it consumes each year and exports that electricity to neighbouring countries, mainly to Switzerland, the U.K., Italy, and Germany.

France is the fifth-greatest carbon emitting country in Europe (ranking twelfth world-wide) and is currently responsible for about 1.7% of the world's total fossil fuel-based carbon emissions. France has experienced only about a 9% increase in annual fossil fuel-based carbon emissions since the beginning of the 1990s, due mostly to the heavy reliance on nuclear power for its electricity supply. France is classified as an Annex I country under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and has pledged to limit its carbon emissions to the 1990 level (102 million metric tons) under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. To help achieve this, the French government's Inter-Ministerial Greenhouse Effect Mission has created a 96-point plan, which includes calling for an initial carbon tax of $23 to $30 per metric ton of carbon emitted, rising to about $75 by 2010. French industry will also be called on to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 30% under the plan.