While Paris ramps up its rhetoric on reclaiming energy sovereignty, France’s overseas territories—despite being showcases of French presence in the Indo-Pacific and the Caribbean—remain largely absent from major national reports and investment priorities.
A Blind Spot in National Statistics
The observation is striking first and foremost for its silence. The major reference documents produced by the State—the French Energy Balance, published annually by the statistical service of the Ministry for Ecological Transition—focus almost exclusively on the interconnected mainland territory. Aggregated data on production, consumption, or energy independence rates concern the continental national grid, not the isolated island electricity systems of the French West Indies, Réunion, French Guiana, or French Polynesia.
This statistical invisibility is not insignificant: according to an op-ed published in Valeurs Actuelles, it reflects a “misunderstood” challenge of French energy policy—that of territories that are structurally more vulnerable, yet treated as a mere afterthought in mainland decision-making.
A Reclaimed Mainland Mix, Overseas Territories Left Out
By contrast, the figures published for mainland France illustrate the scale of the effort underway on the continent. In 2025, French primary energy production increased by 2.0%, driven by improved availability of the nuclear fleet and the rise of solar photovoltaics. Net energy imports fell by 3.5% over the year, following an already spectacular 20.6% decline between 2022 and 2024; net imports of refined petroleum products even plummeted by 24.5% in one year, against a backdrop of recovery in domestic refining.
As a result, the country’s energy bill was lightened: it decreased by 21% between 2024 and 2025, to stand at €45.8 billion. A year earlier, the 2024 report had already reported a 10.2% increase in primary production, driven by a 12.5% rise in nuclear production, bringing the national energy independence rate to 61%.
These very real achievements concern an interconnected electricity system that is largely decarbonized thanks to nuclear power. Nothing comparable exists in the official publications consulted for the non-interconnected grids of the overseas territories—which structurally rely on fossil fuel imports shipped by sea, without the safety net provided by the mainland nuclear fleet.
Investment and R&D: Concentrated on the Mainland
The state’s budgetary efforts in energy follow the same geographical pattern. Public investment in energy R&D reached €2.2 billion in 2024, or 0.1% of national GDP—up 6% compared to 2023 and 43% compared to 2019. These steadily rising amounts place France fourth in Europe in terms of the share of GDP dedicated to public energy R&D.
But this effort, according to the same data, is concentrated on:
- major nuclear and hydrogen projects, within the framework of European programs;
- industrial production sectors on mainland soil;
- infrastructure designed for lifespans of several decades.
Furthermore, in its energy sovereignty methodology, The Shift Project points out the importance of thinking about the long-term lifespan of infrastructure:
« An effective text must include objectives related to non-electric energy […], and take into account the 60-year or longer lifespans of energy infrastructure », emphasizes The Shift Project.
This requirement for long-term planning logically applies to overseas territories as much as to the mainland—yet none of the documents consulted mention any quantified target or specific investment pathway for these island systems.
A Strategic Maritime Facade, an Undocumented Dependence
Yet the Indo-Pacific and the Caribbean represent, for French diplomacy, strategic projection zo
