French President Francois Hollande said Friday that the country's Fessenheim nuclear power plant will be closed by the end of 2016.

Hollande made the remarks at the inauguration of a two-day environment conference in Paris where he will announce a slate of measures on environment and energy.

France operates 58 reactors and has been a leading international proponent of nuclear energy. However, closing nuclear plants has been a controversial issue in the country as France is the most nuclear-energy relying country in the world, with 75 percent of its power coming from nuclear sources.

The heavily reliance on nuclear power has been called into question since Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Many green energy supporters have since then pushed hard for the closure of nuclear plants in France.

Hollande himself had also promised in the pre-election campaigns to reduce France's reliance on nuclear energy from 75 percent to 50 percent by 2025, and was critically blamed by then-president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who was accusing him of damaging the country's nuclear industry and energy independence, depriving the nuclear plant's workers of their jobs.

To reduce dependence on nuclear energy, renewable energy supply will be increasingly needed, Hollande told his audience at the conference that new appeals for wind and solar projects will be launched before the end of 2012.

In his 40-minute speech, the French president vows to "make France the environmental 'nation of excellence'."

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