"Case of the century": France deemed "responsible" for climate inaction
Representatives of the four NGOs which attacked the French state as part of the “Sicele Affair” on March 14, 2019 in Paris.
AFP - CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The French state was judged on Wednesday "responsible" for failures in the fight against global warming, a "historic" decision for NGOs which attacked France for its inaction, supported by a petition of more than 2.3 million citizens .
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"
In line with the commitments it had made and which it did not respect under the first carbon budget, the State must be held responsible (...) for part of the ecological damage observed
", wrote the judges of the Administrative Court of Paris after two years of proceedings.
Four NGOs, grouped under the banner "The Affair of the Century" (Notre Affaire à tous, Greenpeace France, Fondation Nicolas Hulot and Oxfam France),
had taken the matter to court in March 2019
.
The judges thus followed in the footsteps of the Council of State, which in November denounced France's failure to meet its own targets for the fight against greenhouse gas emissions.
One euro for "moral damage"
In this first resounding decision for environmental defenders, the country's highest administrative court then gave the government three months to justify its actions in this area.
The administrative court also ordered an additional period (two months) to consider the request of NGOs to order the state to take action.
The judges granted one euro to the NGOs for “moral prejudice”, but rejected on points of law their request for the same symbolic euro for “ecological prejudice”.
“
BACKGROUND: State climate inaction is deemed ILLEGAL!
The requesting NGOs quickly tweeted in response.
“
Justice has taken the State at its word, holding it responsible for failures to meet the objectives it has set itself.
This will allow, we hope, to take action and measures to repair,
”said Clémentine Baldon, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
🎉 # LAaffaireDuSiècle is HISTORICAL: State climate inaction is considered ILLEGAL!
This victory is thanks to you!
👏
Let's stay mobilized to go further and obtain new victories.
Together we can make the State act concretely for the climate!
👇 pic.twitter.com/jmokn6nqBR
- The case of the century (@laffairedusiecl) February 3, 2021
The government takes note
Since 2015, France has adopted “national low carbon strategies”, setting annual emission budgets.
These budgets have since been systematically exceeded (by almost 4% for the period 2015/18).
The government then raised the level of these budgets, in particular arousing criticism from the High Council for the Climate, an independent body created to advise the government and analyze its policy, which deemed the efforts "
insufficient
".
For its part, the government "
took note
" of the court's decision, the Ministry of Ecological Transition and government spokesman Gabriel Attal jointly acknowledging "
shortcomings
" and "
shortcomings
" in the fight against global warming.
But they have praised the actions since the arrival of Emmanuel Macron to power in 2017, "
with an action which is probably the most ambitious in the matter of successive governments
".
(With
AFP
)
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