décarboner

The verb at the center of French climate policy — to decarbonize, to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions from an activity or industry (décarboner l'industrie, décarboner les transports) — ubiquitous in news and government communication.

• Le gouvernement veut décarboner l'industrie lourde d'ici 2050. — The government wants to decarbonize heavy industry by 2050.
• Décarboner les transports est un enjeu majeur de la transition écologique. — Decarbonizing transport is a major challenge of the ecological transition.
• Cette usine a réussi à décarboner une partie de sa production. — This factory has managed to decarbonize part of its production.

Don't confuse with décarbonater (removing carbonate minerals, a chemistry term) — décarboner is specifically about cutting CO2 emissions and is the word you'll see constantly in French climate and energy policy coverage.

Often confused with décarbonater.

• politics Plan d'action du gouvernement pour décarboner l'industrie — France's government and its France 2030 program dedicate billions of euros (4.5bn for industry alone) to decarbonizing heavy industry — steel, chemicals, cement — as a named national policy priority, per economie.gouv.fr.