The Council of State demanded that the government take “all useful additional measures” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within a year, in a decision published on Wednesday May 10 on the case of the municipality of Grande-Synthe, without imposing any financial penalty.
“The Council of State today orders the government to take new measures by June 30, 2024, and to send, as of December 31, a progress report detailing these measures and their effectiveness”, indicates the high administrative court, following the conclusions of the public rapporteur.
“The measures taken do not demonstrate a sufficiently marked jump”
In 2019, the town of Grande-Synthe (North) had seized the Council of State for “climate inaction”, considering that its city, located on the coast and neighboring Dunkirk, was threatened with submersion. The highest administrative court had given him reason in July 2021, leaving nine months to France to “take all useful measures” in order to bend “the curve of greenhouse gas emissions” to be in accordance with the objectives of the Paris Agreement (-40% by 2030 compared to 1990).
“The Council of State considers that, while additional measures have indeed been taken and reflect the government’s desire to implement the decision, it is still not guaranteed in a sufficiently credible manner that the trajectory for reducing gas emissions at greenhouse effect can be effectively respected,” he said in a statement.
The decision thus enjoins “the Prime Minister to take all useful additional measures to ensure the consistency of the rate of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions” with the reduction trajectory that the country has set itself.
“The measures taken do not demonstrate a sufficiently marked jump to convince of the achievement of the 2030 objectives” but “the effort nevertheless seems significant to us”, noted the public rapporteur when presenting his conclusions on April 12, in a case where the city of Paris is also one of the applicants alongside NGOs (Notre affaires à tous, Greenpeace, Oxfam).