The highest French administrative court on Thursday, November 19, gave formal notice to the State to justify its climate policy in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions within a quarter.

The Council of State was seized in January 2019 by the ecological mayor of Grande-Synthe, Damien Carême - since elected Member of the European Parliament -, who considered that his municipality on the northern coast was threatened with submersion by "climate inaction" of the government.

The Council did not immediately rule on the merits of this first climate-related litigation file to come before it, but gave the State - which had argued in writing for an outright rejection of the request - three months to report on its actions in the fight against emissions responsible for global warming.

Greenhouse gas emissions: the Government must justify within 3 months that the reduction path for 2030 can be respected >> https://t.co/L4pEDbtYw5 # Global warming pic.twitter.com/7YhEFgEQ9P

- Council of State (@Conseil_Etat) November 19, 2020

The administrative judges noted in particular that the State had committed, to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement aimed at limiting global warming, to achieve a 40% drop in emissions in 2030 compared to their 1990 level. .

Emissions budgets exceeded

However, the “carbon budgets” of emissions adopted in the various government plans - the last “national low carbon strategy” of which dates back to April - have always been exceeded, as shown in particular by the annual reports of the High Council for the Climate.

And the State has, moreover, revised its objectives downwards.

Noting this "postponement (...) of part of the effort to reduce emissions to be carried out", the administrative judges asked the government to justify the "compatibility with the path of reduction of greenhouse gases "to meet its 2030 target.

They thus followed the recommendations of the public rapporteur during the hearing on November 9.

This magistrate responsible for making a recommendation on the case had then underlined that "the heart of the matter is the calendar of actions", since "there is a climate emergency today".

And he considered that the commitments of France, within the framework of the Paris Agreement, European or national legislation could not have "a purely programmatic but very binding objective".

"To send the applicants back to 2030 or 2050 to see if the objectives are reached would lead you to participate in this" climatic tragedy, because "the risk exists that any delay will be irreversible", he argued.          

"Historic decision" in favor of the climate

By following him, the Council of State took "a judgment which seems historic to me", greeted Corinne Lepage, lawyer for the commune of Grande-Synthe.

"The Council of State underlines that the State has obligations not of means but of results. On two occasions, it uses the word of" effectiveness ", which means that the policies must not be only of nice commitments on paper ".

Breaking News - #JusticeClimatique: Historic decision


The State must respect its commitments for the climate - this is what the @Conseil_Etat has just recognized!


The State will also have to justify the means it implements to achieve these objectives pic.twitter.com/FFF2Vvf06z

- The Affair of the Century (@laffairedusiecl) November 19, 2020

A breakthrough also welcomed by Hugues Hannotin, lawyer for the NGO group "l'Affaire du siècle", who also initiated proceedings against the State for climate inaction and had joined as "interveners" in the proceedings of the northern municipality.

"The state is going to have to be held to account, the programming laws are not only for the gallery."

Greenpeace France, for its part, tweeted Thursday a big "BOOM!"

upon the announcement of this formal notice.

The government did not immediately react, but at the end of the hearing on November 9, the Ministry of Ecological Transition told AFP that it would be in the event of a decision asking it to justify its actions. "fully available".

"We have things to defend", especially in terms of decarbonization actions, a source told Minister Barbara Pompili's office.

With AFP

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