Initially politically active for environmental causes, and a member in the successive Gaullist parties (RPF, UNR, UDR, RPR), Poujade became the first Minister of the Environment in France in 1971.

He served in the government of Prime Minister Jacques Chaban-Delmas, under the presidency of Georges Pompidou.

As an opponent to the mayor of Dijon Félix Kir, Robert Poujade ran for Member of Parliament for the first time in 1962.

He was returned at the National Assembly in year 1986 and held the post continuously until his retirement in 2002.

He retired in 2001, and his successor Jean-François Bazin lost the election against François Rebsamen, who became the first Socialist mayor of the City since before the Second World War.