Transport & mobility — France · Synthesis

The leading emitting sector. Transport accounts for around 30% of France's greenhouse gas emissions (Citepa/SDES), the largest emitting sector, dominated by road transport. It is also one of the hardest to decarbonize because the emissions are diffuse and tied to everyday use (see the Environment category).

The car, the dominant mode. The private car remains overwhelmingly the main mode of travel, especially outside major urban areas (SDES, mobility survey). Car dependency in low-density areas is a social issue as much as an environmental one, highlighted during debates about fuel prices.

Road fatalities: a plateau. The number of people killed on the roads stands at around 3,200 per year (ONISR, metropolitan France), a level that has stopped falling after the progress of previous decades. France sits in the European average, far behind the best performers (United Kingdom, Nordic countries) but ahead of Italy.

Electrification accelerating. The share of fully electric vehicles in new registrations has grown strongly (of the order of 17% of recent sales, SDES), supported by incentives and the European timetable for ending the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles in 2035. The rollout of charging infrastructure accompanies this trend, with regional disparities.

Rail and public transport. Ridership on public transport has recovered and then exceeded pre-Covid levels in major urban areas. Rail punctuality and the state of the network (everyday lines, branch lines) are recurring issues, monitored by the Transport Regulatory Authority and the Cour des comptes.

Decarbonizing the leading emitting sector. Transport is at the heart of the climate strategy: fleet electrification, modal shift towards rail and public transport, carpooling, cycling. The challenge is to accelerate a fleet renewal that structurally takes a decade — a target, not a realized figure.

The challenge of the existing fleet. Even if new-car sales shift to electric, the vehicles in circulation will remain overwhelmingly petrol and diesel for years. The question of access to a clean vehicle for lower-income households (cost, second-hand electric vehicles, low-emission zones) is a major acceptability issue.

Investment in rail. The transport investment plan and performance contracts provide for an effort on regenerating the rail network, metropolitan rail services ('SERM') and everyday transport. The level of investment, long deemed insufficient by the Cour des comptes relative to the state of the network, is a central trade-off.

Road safety: breaking out of the plateau. Reaching the fatality-reduction targets ('vision zero') requires action on speed, alcohol, drugs and vulnerable road users (motorcyclists, pedestrians, cyclists), whose share of victims is increasing with the growth of cycling.

The open questions. Three issues will structure the decade: (1) decarbonizing without penalizing households dependent on the car; (2) financing the regeneration of the rail network; (3) relaunching the decline in road fatalities, currently on a plateau.

Placed in its environment, France presents mobility in the European average: car dependency comparable to its neighbours, electrification in a good position and intermediate road safety.

Three takeaways. (1) Road safety: mid-table. With ≈ 48–50 fatalities per million inhabitants, France does better than Italy but remains far behind the United Kingdom (≈ 26, among the safest in Europe) and Germany (≈ 33), close to the EU average (≈ 46).

(2) Electrification: in a good position. The share of electric vehicles in French new-car sales is close to Germany's and above the European average, driven by incentives and a decarbonized electricity grid that maximizes the climate benefit of the electric vehicle.

(3) A climate asset for electric mobility. Because its electricity is very low-carbon (see the Environment category), France derives a greater climate benefit from the electric vehicle than countries with more carbon-intensive electricity — a specific comparative advantage.