France – Ranked 4th in the Global Sustainability Index

Welcome to the Earth.Org Global Sustainability Index, where Earth.Org examines the policies and actions regarding the environment of every nation on earth. Combining the most respected global indexes on pollution, climate change, policy, energy, oceans, biodiversity we have produced an overall Global Index, which will be updated annually. This is the Global Sustainability Index scorecard for France.

In mid-2019, France pledged it would cut its greenhouse gas emissions and go carbon-neutral by 2050, along with other countries in the EU, however experts say everyday life in France does not match the political promises. They say that France needs to strengthen its climate policies, particularly on transport, car use and building renovation

A report recommends that carbon budgets should be more ambitious and set in law, and the carbon neutrality objective should include international transport, from aviation to shipping. France should also implement a strategy to reduce the country’s global carbon footprint. 

• Between 1990 and 2013, France cut its GHG emissions by more than 10%
• Among industrialised nations, France is one of the lowest GHG emitters: it accounts for 1.2% of global emissions and contributes 4.2% og global GDP.  
• The country has committed to increase its share of renewable energy in final energy consumption to 32% by 2030. 
• The country announced a 2 billion euro increase in climate funding by 2020.

You might also like: Global Emissions (2016)

References:

• Biodiversity, Policy: Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G. (2019): Sustainable Development Report 2019. New York: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

• Oceans: Halpern, Benjamin S., et al. “An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean.” Nature 488.7413 (2012): 615-620.

• Pollution: Wendling, Z. A., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C., Levy, M. A., de Sherbinin, A., et al. (2018). 2018 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. https://epi.yale.edu/

• Climate Change: Climate Change Performance Index; Jan Burck, Ursula Hagen, Niklas Höhne, Leonardo Nascimento, Christoph Bals, ISBN 978-3-943704-75-4, 2019

• Energy: Enerdata   –World Energy Statistics – Yearbook.

  World Energy Statistics

Earth.Org Global Sustainability Index Ranking image description: France Rankings – Policy: 45, Pollution: 2, Climate Change: 18, Oceans: 64, Biodiversity: 169, Energy: 14, Earth.Org Global Sustainability Index Ranking 4.