France certainly not enough to tackle climate change, court rules

Signatories hoped to ‘oblige the state to take all necessary measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions’ to achieve the target of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) set by the Paris Agreement, according to the online petition .

But non-governmental organizations have accused the country’s authorities of inadequate policy action needed to tackle climate change, saying greenhouse gas emissions under the current government ‘have fallen at a rate twice as slow as the trajectories provided by law.

The Paris administrative court on Wednesday ordered the state to pay one euro ($ 1.20) for moral damages to each of the associations behind the lawsuit, and ruled that the government’s failures’ the collective interests of each of the the applicant associations’ defense is’ undermined, ‘the court said in its official communication on the matter.

Despite the fact that only symbolic damages were awarded, the charities praised the result.

“This decision is a first historic victory for the climate and a major advance in French law. This ruling is also a victory for the truth: until now, the state has denied that its climate policy was inadequate, despite increasing evidence, “they said in a statement.

“This is the first recognition by the courts of the responsibility of the French state for its climate activity,” Clementine Baldon, a lawyer for one of the NGOs, said at a press conference following the ruling.

“The judges investigated whether there was a causal link between this ecological damage and the various offenses alleged against the state in the fight against climate change. They were of the opinion that the state should be held responsible for part of this. damage if he does not fulfill his obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ”reads the court statement.

In order to determine the measures to be ordered by the state to repair the damage or prevent its aggravation, the judges conducted a further investigation, with a deadline of two months.

In response to the email sent to CNN, the French environment ministry conceded “that the first targets set in the past period have indeed not been achieved”, but said a new ” The Climate and Resilience Bill will be submitted to the Council of Ministers in February.10 and will be a decisive new step in accelerating the ecological transition of France. ‘

Currently, by the end of the century, the world will be warming by 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.86 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) – a non-profit analysis group that follows the government’s climate action. This will lead to more extreme storms, heat waves, higher sea level rise, and in many parts of the world worse droughts and extreme rainfall.