The Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili -

Bony / SIPA

The deputies at the bedside of the environment.

This Monday the deputies seize in committee the emblematic climate bill.

On the program, nearly 5,000 amendments on which the special committee will work for two weeks before the arrival of this sensitive text in the hemicycle at the end of March.

Inspired by the proposals of the Citizen's Convention for the Climate (CCC), the 69 articles affect many areas: consumption, housing, transport - with the prohibition of certain domestic airlines in the event of alternatives of less than 2h30 by train - , food, or environmental justice through the creation of an offense of "ecocide".

Include environmental protection in the Constitution

Another bill is added, on the menu in the hemicycle from Tuesday to Thursday, to include environmental protection in the Constitution, via referendum.

Thanks to the climate law, one of the last major texts of the five-year term, the government wants to make the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 "credible".

But the executive finds itself at odds with the Citizens' Convention, which accuses it of "unraveling" its work, between the "three jokers" brandished by Emmanuel Macron (including the 110 km / h on the motorway thus excluded) and the revised measures.

"There is no drop in ambition"

Last Sunday, for its last session, the Convention severely judged the translation of its proposals by the government, with scores well below average.

"There is no decline in ambition," defended the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili, who however intends to favor "effective" and "better accepted" measures by sectors such as air transport, "damaged" by the health crisis.

Former EELV, the minister must assume the arbitrations of the government and spare the balances of the majority, torn between a liberal wing and a fringe more “ecological-compatible”.

Prime Minister Jean Castex also ensures that he is not "in the camp of conservatism": "We do not have an Ayatollist approach but we want to move the lines".

Meatless menus in the canteen in the debates

The government wants to avoid the cacophony of ten days ago on meatless menus in school canteens.

The debate will also resurface in the food section of the bill, which provides for the experimentation of a daily vegetarian menu in the canteens of voluntary communities.

Co-rapporteur Célia de Lavergne (LREM) hopes to "restore a little peace of mind" and pushes to go beyond this simple experiment.

Some "walkers" would also like stronger measures on the overall thermal renovation of housing or the supervision of advertising, while the text prohibits advertising for fossil fuels only.

Environmental NGOs are very critical, such as Greenpeace, which criticizes “greenwashing” and repainted an Air France plane in green on Friday at Roissy, or the Nicolas Hulot Foundation which fears a “five-year term lost for ecology”.

Disappointment on the left

The left intends to relay their disappointment.

“Three quarters of the measures” of the Citizens' Convention have “been abandoned or watered down,” denounces Mathilde Panot (LFI).

The bill "rings hollow", believes the socialist Guillaume Garot, who promises "concrete proposals" such as "the ban on advertising for the fattest and sweetest products".

The former LREM and close to Nicolas Hulot Matthieu Orphelin also intends to defend the proposals of the Convention such as "compulsory comprehensive renovation of housing", with financial aid.

"We will not achieve our objectives without the European scale"

The majority, for its part, praises its entire ecological balance sheet, which is based on "the articulation" of several laws - including that against waste adopted in early 2020 - and the impact of French climate diplomacy.

"We will not achieve our objectives without the European scale, on carbon taxation of course, but also on the standards that Europe can impose on car manufacturers", underlines the president of the special committee Laurence Maillart-Méhaignerie ( LREM).

The deputies know the many resistance aroused among the industrialists, even for certain measures among the local elected officials.

LR side, Damien Abad wants to bring "a right-wing ecology, more based on bonuses than on penalties".

His party intends to build its own software on the subject, one of the key issues of the 2022 presidential election.

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