[genericid]

France got almost 75% of its electricity from fossil fuels in the mid-70s[1], so "never" is wrong.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Electricity_production_by...

[ekianjo]

Well, 40-50 years is already a long time. It means that France made the shift before and ahead of other countries.

[WhompingWindows]

Technically, they were running their economy by burning wood/fats/oils for hundreds of years. However, in the context of energy, what matters most is what's happening right now and the total sum of global emissions prior to right now.

[genericid]

In the context of sentences involving the word "never", it does not matter when the thing that supposedly never happened did happen.