France

France operates an integrated climate-planning architecture: the Stratégie Nationale Bas-Carbone (SNBC) with legally binding carbon budgets, supported by sectoral planning (e.g., energy programming PPE) and, since 2022, the cross-government Planification Écologique / France Nation Verte coordinated by the Secrétariat général à la planification écologique. This constitutes a de facto national green transition plan with public documentation and sectoral roadmaps. While comprehensive and regularly updated, not all planification-écologique deliverables are codified in a single binding “green economy” statute beyond the SNBC legal base.

France combines mandatory board-level employee representation with robust gender-balance rules and mandatory sustainability reporting. Large companies must appoint employee directors to boards (Code de commerce, e.g., L.225-27-1), a regime reinforced by the Loi PACTE (2019). Gender diversity on boards has been required since the Copé-Zimmermann Law (2011), and France has now transposed Directive (EU) 2022/2381 (“Women on Boards”): the AMF was designated in May 2025 as the competent authority to analyse and monitor compliance for listed companies. Sustainability reporting is mandatory under the CSRD, transposed by Ordonnance n° 2023-1142 and Décret n° 2023-1394 (late-2023), with AMF guidance to issuers. In addition, the PACTE law introduced the “société à mission” (‘mission-led company’) option (Code de commerce L.210-10), creating an incentive structure for companies to embed social and environmental objectives.

France mandates public participation for plans/programmes/projects with environmental incidence (Code de l’environnement, L121-1 et s.), ensures env. assessments (L122-1 et s.), and requires études d’impact for government bills under Organic Law 2009-403. The Commission nationale du débat public (CNDP) guarantees participation on major projects. These frameworks are mature; debates in 2024–2025 about potential scope changes to CNDP do not alter the legal baseline as of now. Coverage of specific marginalised groups is addressed in some impact sections but not as a uniform, cross-file mandatory template.

France has statutory recognition of “beyond-GDP” indicators through Law No. 2015-411, which requires government reporting using new wealth indicators alongside budget discussions. INSEE maintains national dashboards that track sustainable development and complementary “wealth” indicators, and France publishes environmental-economic statistics (satellite environmental accounts and annual “Environmental overview of France”). France and EU institutions also continue ecosystem/natural capital accounting work under the SEEA framework (e.g., the EU INCA platform). However, there is no evidence of a fully integrated, comprehensive national wealth framework that systematically covers human, social, natural, and produced/financial capital and is embedded into routine planning and budgeting decisions.

France maintains a comprehensive sustainable-finance framework at national and EU levels. The government reformed the Label ISR with a new official referential effective 1 March 2024 (transition for existing funds to 1 Jan 2025), strengthening climate criteria and exclusions; the Greenfin label (Ministry for Ecological Transition) continues to exclude fossil-fuel activities and set detailed eligibility criteria. Agence France Trésor runs a large sovereign Green OAT programme and publishes annual allocation/performance reports (e.g., 2024 report published 22 July 2025). On supervision, ACPR/Banque de France conducts recurring climate stress-testing exercises (banking and insurance) and publishes the scenarios and main assumptions; French institutions are also covered by EU-level SSM/EBA exercises. While labels and disclosure are stringent, there is no national prudential penalty framework (e.g., capital surcharges) specifically restricting bank exposures to high-emitting sectors beyond EU supervisory expectations.

"France has introduced several green fiscal measures, including over €30 billion in green stimulus from the 2020–21 “Plan de Relance” and new climate-linked allocations in the 2025 Finance Loi. The Banque de France and its supervisory authority, ACPR, conduct climate stress tests for insurers and banks and are founding members of the NGFS. In 2023–24, ACPR published exercise results revealing the impact of physical and transition risks on solvency ratios. The Banque de France releases annual climate-risk reports aligned with NGFS scenarios. However, France does not undertake fully integrated sustainability reviews of fiscal and monetary policy—monetary decisions largely follow EU/ECB guidelines.

France embeds sustainability into its trade and finance toolbox mainly through national green-finance instruments and by pushing for stronger environment chapters in EU trade policy, rather than via dedicated, ACCTS-style green trade deals of its own. On the finance side, Agence France Trésor’s Green OAT (sovereign green bond) framework and annual allocation/reporting channel multi-billion-euro proceeds to climate, biodiversity and circular-economy spending, while the government’s “budget vert” discloses the environmental impact of the State budget and is now accompanied by a multi-year strategy to finance the ecological transition (SPAFTE). On the trade rulebook itself, France has advocated tighter sustainable-development provisions at EU level (e.g., through the CETA action plan and the France–Netherlands non-paper), but there is no national practice of integrating comprehensive green chapters with ISDS reform and explicit interoperability of carbon-pricing/taxonomy regimes across all agreements.

France prices carbon through both EU ETS participation and a domestic carbon component in energy excises (the contribution climat-énergie, embedded in TICPE/TICGN, introduced in 2014). Planned increases to the domestic carbon component were frozen from 2019, but the charge remains in the tax base. France also operates legally binding carbon budgets set by decree under the Stratégie nationale bas-carbone (SNBC); Décret n° 2020-457 (21 Apr 2020) fixed the 2nd–4th budgets for 2019–2023, 2024–2028, 2029–2033. An SNBC-3 update has been under consultation since late-2024.

"France’s National Low-Carbon Strategy (SNBC) and the update to its National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP/PPE3) lay out legally binding carbon budgets, sector-specific energy efficiency targets, and decarbonization plans covering transport, agriculture, energy, and buildings. These plans are overseen by the General Secretariat for Ecological Planning and the High Council on Climate, with ongoing public consultation and regional implementation mechanisms. Reforms include mandates (e.g., carbon budgets for public institutions, energy efficiency obligations), with strategic coordination but limited presence of a unified interministerial green economy body.

France has a integrated circular-economy framework linking strategy, consumer rights, procurement and long-term targets. The 2018 Circular Economy Roadmap (FREC) set the course, and the 2020 Anti-Waste for a Circular Economy Act (AGEC) operationalized it with concrete measures: phased bans on single-use plastics, mandatory food-waste reduction targets, extended producer responsibility, eco-design and a national “repair index,” now paired with a state-backed “bonus réparation” that increased in 2024 and is expanding to more appliance categories through 2025. These policies are mainstreamed across ministries and backed by decrees and guidance that anchor reuse, repair, and circular procurement in practice.

France runs an integrated, funded plan to decarbonize mobility in the 2030s: the 2019 Mobility Orientation Act (LOM) sets the policy spine (low-emission zones, end of new fossil-fuel LDV sales trajectory, planning powers), complemented by an acceleration strategy for the digitalization & decarbonization of transport (PIA4/France 2030), a national charging-infrastructure plan targeting 400,000 public charge points by 2030, and rail-first metropolitan “SERM” programmes to scale affordable collective transport. The government continues to overhaul EV purchase incentives and the “bonus écologique/prime” scheme via 2024–2025 decrees, while directing local charging master plans and grid connection rules to unlock private uptake. France does not yet have 2030 targets for fully electrified public, private and freight mobility nationwide.

"The 2023–2035 Multiannual Energy Plan (PPE3) targets a reduction in final energy fossil fuel use from ~60% (2023) to ~30% by 2035 and boosts renewable electricity share to 39% by 2035. It includes specific deployment goals—sixfold increase in solar PV, doubled onshore wind, and 18 GW offshore wind capacity by 2035. France combines support via fixed-price contracts, tenders, and grid infrastructure upgrades. However, nuclear expansion and delayed legislation have complicated policy coherence, and there is no 90% final energy renewable target.

"France is advancing green employment through initiatives administered by the Ministry of Labour's DGEFP, backed by the EU’s Technical Support Instrument. The National Green Employment Roadmap (expected 2026) includes sector retraining, youth green internships, and support for labor transition. Additionally, the Recovery and Resilience Plan allocates €4.6 billion toward youth employment and green-training schemes . Pilot programs for skill retraining, apprenticeship integration in low-carbon sectors, and regional employment strategies are underway across construction, sustainable mobility, and energy services.

Just-transition elements are present across the climate policy architecture (e.g., the ongoing update of the National Low-Carbon Strategy—SNBC-3—and the National Adaptation Plan PNACC-3). The EU Just Transition Fund provides a national programme for territories in transition; the Commission notes around €1 billion for ten areas in six regions, with capacity-building support rolled out to French managing authorities in 2024–2025. France’s Recovery and Resilience Plan includes measures for skills and social protection during the transition. There is, however, no standalone, integrated national framework that sets out economy-wide just-transition guidance and benefit-sharing principles across sectors.

France has a social and solidarity economy (SSE) framework under Loi n° 2014-856 and government recognition/benefits via ESUS accreditation; policy portals detail supports and financing. Targeted MSME greening instruments are extensive: Bpifrance “Prêt Vert” and the Plan Climat toolset (e.g., Diag Décarbon’Action, Diag Éco-Flux), plus ADEME grant windows such as “Tremplin pour la transition écologique des PME”; France 2030 funds decarbonisation projects, including for smaller industrial sites. There is no single, distinct “social enterprise” legal form separate from SSE status, but ESUS functions as a gate to dedicated support.

"Caisse des Dépôts’ Sustainable Financing Framework (July 2025) commits to over €60 bn in green, social, and sustainable bonds by 2028, with quantified impact indicators, transparent proceeds management, and alignment with ICMA principles and EU Taxonomy . The Recovery and Resilience Plan includes over €20 bn for green investment and €4.6 bn for inclusive employment. While these finance mechanisms integrate social equity lenses, there is no unified national social protection strategy explicitly linked to green transition or community job guarantees.

France has current national strategies for biodiversity and the sea: the Stratégie nationale pour la biodiversité 2030 (SNB 2030) and the Stratégie nationale pour la mer et le littoral 2024–2030 (SNML). Implementation aligns with EU frameworks (Natura 2000, Marine Strategy Framework Directive) and SDGs 14/15/GBF. Monitoring and indicator systems (Observatoire national de la biodiversité/Nature France) are maintained and periodically expanded. The CAP Strategic Plan also integrates environmental and biodiversity objectives under EU rules. While strategies and indicator platforms are in place, interim, binding, and consistently reported progress milestones across terrestrial and marine targets are not systematically consolidated in a single, legally binding reporting framework.

France regularly publishes environmental economic accounts (satellite to national accounts) and indicator-rich reports via SDES/INSEE (e.g., Bilan environnemental de la France 2024/2025 extracts; accounts on environmental protection expenditure, material flows, taxes). Biodiversity governance is structured through the Stratégie nationale biodiversité 2030 and advisory bodies including the Comité national de la biodiversité and Conseil national de la protection de la nature. While these provide formal advisory capacity, France does not maintain a dedicated, independent natural-capital advisory committee with a statutory role in budgets/planning, and it does not yet publish a consolidated set of ecosystem/natural-capital asset and service valuation accounts distinguishing economic, socio-cultural and global values across communities.

France is finalizing a national, SDG-aligned food-systems strategy that consolidates existing pillars (PNA/PNNS, EGAlim, food-waste cuts, agroecology) into a coherent 2030 framework. In April–August 2025 the government publicly consulted the draft “Stratégie nationale pour l’alimentation, la nutrition et le climat (SNANC),” which aims to steer healthy, low-impact diets, strengthen public procurement, reduce food waste and emissions, and improve resilience and sovereignty; it builds on the Programme national pour l’alimentation, extended calls-for-projects (2024–2025) and the EGAlim law’s sustainable-procurement rules for collective catering. This is a near-complete, robust architecture; however, because the SNANC is still being finalized and subsidy-phase-out commitments are not yet comprehensively set across the whole system.

France applies environmental taxation and publishes an official “green budgeting” assessment (budget vert). For PLF 2025 the government reports €42.6 bn in environment-favourable expenditures and also quantifies environmentally “unfavourable” items, indicating that some harmful supports persist. At EU level, France participates in the Commission’s Roadmap towards Nature Credits and is piloting biodiversity-certificate approaches in wetlands (Green Assist pilot in the Seine–Normandy basin coordinated with the Ministry and Water Agency). There is not yet a comprehensive national fiscal reform to eliminate harmful subsidies across sectors or a dedicated mechanism directing substantial, ongoing, nature-finance flows to IPLC-type constituencies (noting the different EU context for “IPLCs”).

Post-COVID recovery instruments combined national and EU resources. France Relance dedicated €30 bn to the ecological transition within a €100 bn package, and the EU Recovery and Resilience Plan for France (including the 2023/2024 amendments and REPowerEU chapter) allocates a high share of expenditure to climate objectives—Commission materials put the climate contribution around the upper-40s to ~50% range across updates. Additional investment policies (e.g., France 2030) further support decarbonisation and green innovation. While green investment volumes are significant and linked to structural transition aims, environmental conditionality has varied by measure.