Why the “ecocide offense” proposed by the executive leaves a bitter taste

A protester in front of a sign asking -

• This Monday morning, the Ministries of Justice and Ecological Transition returned to their proposal to create an "ecocide offense", announced the day before, and the definition they wish to give.

• Members of the Citizen's Climate Convention regret that this “ecocide offense” departs from their initial proposal.

  By speaking of “misdemeanor” and not of “crime”, but also starting from an overly restrictive definition, limited to cases of pollution.

• This disappointment is relayed by associations of lawyers specializing in climate justice issues.

  Fear ?

  "That this proposal weakens the efforts made, at the international level, to have the concept of the crime of ecocide recognized", considers Marine Calmet.

"To the sorrowful spirits who regret that we did not take again without filter the measure of the Citizens' Convention, not only was it not possible, but it was not either the initial" deal "", justify the ministries of Ecological Transition and Justice.

This Monday at the end of the morning, the entourages of the two ministers, Barbara Pompili and Eric Dupond-Moretti, returned to the government's intention to create an “ecocide offense”, announced the day before in the

.

A decision that emanates from the Citizen's Climate Convention and its final report, returned to the government at the end of June, but which is far from satisfying all its members, who asked to adopt a law that penalizes the crime of ecocide.

In addition to this, you will need to know more about it.

"A fight to be led on an international scale"?

It is one of the 149 measures identified by these 150 citizens drawn at random to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030, a mission entrusted to them by Emmanuel Macron from October 2019. In Within this framework, the convention called for the adoption of a law which penalizes, as we have said, the “crime of ecocide”, defined as “any action having caused serious ecological damage by participating in the manifest and significant overstepping of planetary limits, committed with knowledge of the consequences that would result and that could not be ignored.

"

Already in December 2019, a bill to this effect, carried by the PS deputy Christophe Bouillon, had ended in failure, rejected by the National Assembly.

Rebelote today?

The Ministry of Ecological Transition immediately recalls that on June 29, when he received the members of the Citizens' Convention, Emmanuel Macron "immediately indicated that the crime of ecocide was an international fight".

A fight that France was ready to lead.

"This will probably be done with several authorities, in particular with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Court of Justice of the European Union", specifies one in the entourage of Barbara Pompili.

"This will be one of the subjects that France wishes to cover when it takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union in 2022", adds to the Ministry of Justice.

The catch of planetary limits ...

The other obstacle, pointed out by the two ministries, to the establishment of a crime of ecocide in French law, is that of the “planetary limits” on which the Citizens' Convention wanted to rely to define it.

"This concept of" planetary limits "is the result of the work of the Stockholm Resilience center, on which international researchers have been working since 2009, and which are still ongoing", explains Marine Calmet, lawyer and president of Wild Legal, an association committed to recognition of the rights of Nature and the crime of ecocide.

These planetary limits are to be seen as the thresholds that humanity must not exceed in order not to compromise the favorable conditions in which it has been able to develop and be able to live sustainably in a safe ecosystem.

These researchers have defined nine:

• Climate change

• The erosion of biodiversity

• The disruption of the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus

• Land use changes

• Ocean acidification

• Global water use

• Depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer

• The increase in aerosols in the atmosphere

“The problem is that for a criminal conviction, we must be able to rely on concrete, measurable, quantifiable facts, we replied to the Ministry of Ecological Transition on Monday.

This is not the case today with the concept of planetary boundaries.

We do not know how to measure and calculate the planetary limits that would apply to the national territory.

"

"An alternative proposal not taken into account"

"It would take between one to three years of complementary work, with scientists, to do this work of declining these nine limits at local scales", admits Marine Yzquierdo, lawyer and coordinator of "Notre affaires à tous", an NGO specializing in climate justice issues.

Hence the need, in the meantime, to find a new definition.

This is precisely the work carried out by members of the Convention in collaboration with lawyers and scientists, including Marine Calmet and Marine Yzquierdo.

The result was an alternative proposition based on the notion of “ecocide” no longer on planetary boundaries, but on the work of Scottish jurist Polly Higgins.

"She defined the crime of ecocide as" a serious, extensive and lasting attack on the natural environment ", explains Marine Calmet.

Twice since June, we have presented this definition to government officials at meetings.

But they didn't take it into account.

"

Ecocide offense or general pollution offense?

Enough to leave a bitter taste for Guy Kulitza, one of the 150 members of the Citizens' Convention.

"The government wants to create, in reality, a generalized pollution offense", he regrets, before reading the definition given by the Ministry of Justice: "a transversal offense punishing diligence, recklessness, breach of a safety obligation leading to air and soil pollution.

In parentheses, "ecocide offense" is not ecocide.

"

At least "not only that", specify Marine Calmet and Marine Yzquierdo.

"This ecocide offense would only concern attacks which would be linked to discharges into water, air or soil, so that a large number of potential attacks on the environment would not be included in this ecocide offense ”, they indicate.

"Deforestation, for example, which Emmanuel Macron qualified this summer as ecocide, referring to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest", illustrates Marine Calmet.

"The same goes for oil extraction in the Niger Delta, which has heavy environmental impacts but would not be considered an 'ecocide offense' if we take the definition given by the executive today", adds Marine Yzquierdo to give another example.

"The risk of weakening the fight for the recognition of the crime of ecocide"

This is the whole paradox pointed out by the coordinator of “Our common concern”.

"The creation of a generic offense of pollution, as well as the creation of an offense of endangering the environment, also announced Sunday, are two progress requested by lawyers for a long time," she begins.

But we are still very far from the original spirit of the text of the Citizens' Convention ”.

And also very far from what this international movement of jurists wants to do, which has been working for ten years to recognize this notion of "crime of ecocide" in the law, continues Marine Calmet.

. @ barbarapompili announces that "the sword of justice will fall on the bandits of the environment"

But in the proposal of the government neither crime nor #ecocide, and many obstacles, in spite of undeniable advances.

We also expect you to respond to our reviews!

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- Marie Toussaint 🌍🌏 (@ marietouss1) November 23, 2020

The president of Wild Legal even fears that the government's proposal will weaken this fight.

By this too restrictive definition, but also by the use of the term "misdemeanor" and not of crime.

A downside already underlined on Sunday, in a column published in the

, by Marie Toussaint, MEP EELV and founder of "Our common concern".

“Everyone knows that an offense is not a crime,” she wrote.

[…].

As it stands, in our view, the proposal formulated would unfortunately continue to consider as minor offenses the most serious damage to ecosystems, crimes that endanger the planet and which must finally be considered as such by criminal law. .

"

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