With 10 days to go to the French presidential election, the government has just broken a deadline to realign itself with the Paris Climate …
With 10 days to go to the French presidential election, the government has just broken a deadline to realign itself with the Paris Climate Agreement objectives.
In a landmark ruling back in July 2021, France’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, condemned the government’s failure to comply with the 2015 accord and tackle climate change.
After a review, it concluded that the country was not doing enough to reach the agreement’s objective of reducing global greenhouse gases by 40% by 2030 compared to 1990.
The court gave the government nine months to “take all useful measures” to get the country back on track.
Its ruling followed legal action by Grande-Synthe, a suburb of Dunkirk on France’s northern coast which considers itself threatened by rising sea levels, and four NGOs.
Campaigners had hoped to put the climate emergency at the centre of the election debate — but that was scuppered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The French government’s 2021 law aimed at addressing the climate crisis been criticised for not going far enough — with President Macron accused of failing to rise to the magnitude of the challenge.
Euronews international correspondent Anelise Borges says there is still a lack of urgency to tackle global warming in the country. Watch her report in the video player above.
