Heating oil: average prices in France 2000 to 2017
France consumes fewer fossil fuels than Germany
Heating oil is mainly used as a fuel oil for boilers, industrial furnaces or central heating systems. In a survey led by the International Energy Agency in 2016, the residential space heating was responsible for 16 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions in France. In Germany, where the average price of heating seems to have progressed in a similar manner as in France, the share of electricity produced from oil, gas and coal sources is much higher than in France. In 2015, 55.06 percent of the electricity produced in Germany came from fossil fuels, while in France this share amounted to 6.04 percent.
The German consumption of fossil fuels should be reduced along with its Carbon dioxide emissions
Germany’s relative dependence on fossil fuels is also reflected in its emissions of carbon dioxide. Alone in 2016, Germany released around 766.6 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. In that same year, France reported 315.3 million metric tons of CO2. Due to Germany’s energy transformation plan (the so-called Energiewende), the government plans the consumption of fossil fuels should be reduced by 60 percent by 2050* in order to reduce sharply the emission generated by this energy source.