Last year's estimated reduction was less than the 5.8 percent recorded for the 2022-2023 period, the Citepa association said.

Its figures showed that France was slipping away from its target of halving its gross greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared with a 1990 baseline.

To reach that, the country would have to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced by the equivalent of 15 million tonnes, or 15 MTCO2e, every year between 2024 and 2030.

But the Citepa data showed 2024's reduction was just 6.7 MTCO2e.

France is not alone in seeing a slowing of progress in cutting emissions.

Germany, Britain and the United States are all estimated to have reduced less than aimed for, while in China emissions have continued to increase.

Citepa, whose figures are used by the French government to assess the state of emissions, noted that France's heavy reliance on nuclear and renewable energy sources drove the reduction last year.

That sector registered an 11.6 percent drop in emissions, it said.

The transport and housing sectors, though, showed little progress.

In total, France's estimated 2024 greenhouse gas emissions totalled 366 MTCO2e, the lowest amount since 1990, Citepa said.

France is currently revising its national low-carbon strategy, whose provisional target is to reduce gross emissions to 270 MTCO2e in 2030.

The UN says that humanity is not on the right trajectory to cut carbon pollution sufficiently to avert global warming producing a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.