Greening the French Public Administration

The European Commission supported France in decarbonising and climate-proofing its public administration — one of the largest in Europe by workforce, infrastructure, and emissions. With 2.5 million civil servants (9% of all employees) and nearly 100 million m² of public buildings, the French State is not just a policymaker, but also one of the country’s biggest carbon emitters. In line with the European Green Deal and the ComPAct initiative, the project equipped France with the tools, governance structures, and institutional capacities to turn high-level climate goals into operational reality. Led by the General Commission for Sustainable Development (CGDD), the project enabled a national transformation effort  — decarbonising day-to-day operations, embedding climate adaptation into planning, and empowering ministries and prefectures to lead by example through concrete, scalable instruments.

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