Paris (AFP)
The Constitutional Council on Friday largely dismissed an appeal filed by deputies concerning the climate-resilience law, deemed insufficient against climate change, because their grievances were "excessively general", but without commenting on the compliance of the law with respect to it. to the Constitution.
"The appeal challenged the law taken as a whole", judging that it was "+ in the spiral of inaction which led to non-compliance with France's trajectory in terms of reducing greenhouse gases +" and does not guarantee "the right to live in a balanced environment which respects health, enshrined in Article 1 of the Environmental Charter," recalls the Constitutional Council in a press release.
"The applicants only develop a general criticism (...) of the insufficiency of the law taken as a whole and therefore do not criticize, in order to request censorship, any particular provision", notes the press release.
"The Constitutional Council deduces that their complaint can only be dismissed."
The Wise Men also ruled out an appeal concerning e-commerce warehouses.
On the other hand, they censored certain articles considered to be "legislative riders".
"This law does not defend the general interest, the Council should have taken a decision protecting our rights and freedoms which are threatened by the growing worsening of climate change", criticizes Laura Monnier, from the NGO Greenpeace, in a press release.
Global warming: the key points of the IPCC report Alain BOMMENEL AFP
Once the law is in force, there will remain the possibility of contesting its content via the procedure of the priority question of constitutionality (QPC).
"It can take years", tempers Fabien Bottini, doctor of public law, who contributed to the "external contribution" (informal legal note) submitted by Greenpeace to the Constitutional Council.
More than sixty deputies had seized the Constitutional Council at the end of July concerning the climate-resilience law.
This law, inspired by the work of the Citizen's Convention for the Climate (CCC), and associated with other texts and the recovery plan, will allow France to fulfill its commitments and "tend towards the objective of -40% "greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990," assured the Ministry of Ecological Transition when it was adopted by Parliament on July 20.
But many believe that the account is not there, at a time when the group of climate experts of the UN, the IPCC, underlines in its latest report that the climate is changing faster than expected because of human activities.
President Emmanuel Macron during a meeting with members of the Citizen's Climate Convention, December 14, 2020 in Paris Thibault Camus POOL / AFP / Archives
"We believe that this law deprives of legal guarantees + the right to live in a balanced environment and respectful of health + enshrined in Article 1 of the Environmental Charter", indicated La France insoumise in a press release, to explain referral to the Constitutional Council.
- German precedent -
In Germany, the Constitutional Court last April censored part of the government's climate law, deeming it too unambitious.
The judges ruled that the legislation was "not in conformity with the fundamental rights" of the younger generations, thus forcing Berlin to raise its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to -65% by 2030 compared to 1990 .
In France, the Council of State ordered the government in early July to do more to meet its greenhouse gas reduction commitments.
Seized by the municipality of Grande-Synthe and several associations, he gave him until March 31 to review his copy.
Greenhouse gas emissions in France AFP
The High Climate Council (HCC), an independent body responsible for evaluating France's climate policy, also considers the efforts made by Paris "insufficient".
Not to mention that the European Commission now wants to reduce EU emissions by 55% by 2030.
"It is now necessary to make a corrective law", estimates the deputy PS Gérard Leseul, who is one of the elected officials who seized the Wise Men.
© 2021 AFP