French energy policy

In the 1970s, being highly dependent on the importation of fossil fuels (e.g. for nearly 80% of its purchased energy-supplies in 1973), France suffered more intensely than the majority of other countries from the two crude-oil unit-price crises of 1973 1974 and 1979 1980. Thus, the French Government has chosen to implement vigorously a policy consisting of (i) encouragement of energy thrift; (ii) expansion of indigenous energy-harnessing, mainly through a major programme of building and using nuclear-power stations; (iii) substitution by alternative energy-forms not associated with crude mineral-oil; and (iv) diversification of sources of imported fuel supplies. These have simultaneously both reduced France’s energy vulnerability and helped protect the environment. During the last 25 years, France’s annual energy consumption has grown while the amount of fuel imported per year has declined, mainly because of the vast nuclear-power investment. France’s energy policy, like that of its partners in the Community, has an increasing European dimension.