The Council of State demanded this Wednesday, May 10 from the government new measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within a year, in the case of the municipality of Grande-Synthe.
“ The Council of State is today ordering the government to take new measures by June 30, 2024, and to send a progress report on December 31 detailing these measures and their effectiveness. “, Indicates the high administrative court, thus following the conclusions of the public rapporteur. However, it did not retain a financial penalty against the government.
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 ruled in his favor in July 2021, leaving nine months to France For “ take all necessary measures “in order to influence” the curve of greenhouse gas emissions to be in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement (-40% by 2030 compared to 1990).
Insufficient measures so far
“ The Council of State considers that, although additional measures have indeed been taken and reflect the government’s desire to implement the decision, there is still not a sufficiently credible guarantee that the greenhouse gas emissions reduction trajectory of greenhouse can be effectively respected “, he said in a press release. 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 Council of State also notes that the European Union has approved a new objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by -55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, which will result in a more ambitious objective. for France. A review which, if not directly applicable to the case under review, ” cannot be ignored “.
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” The measures taken do not show a sufficiently marked leap forward to convince of the achievement of the 2030 objectives ” but ” the effort nevertheless seems significant to us “, had noted the public rapporteur in presenting his conclusions on April 12, in a case where the city of Paris is also among the applicants alongside NGOs (Our business at all, Greenpeace, Oxfam).
The decision thus resumes on Wednesday the measures put forward by the government in transport, construction or industry: ban on the installation of oil or coal boilers, development of renewable and nuclear energies, promotion of electric vehicles, etc. . But “ there are lingering uncertainties on the credibility of government measures to achieve a rate of reduction in emissions […] consistent with the objectives for 2030, underlines the decision.
A separate case had been brought before the Paris administrative court in 2019 by four NGOs united under the banner “ deal of the century “. In February 2021, the court ruled in their favor, declaring the state responsible “of breaches of its commitments and of the” ecological damage ” ensuing. Then, in October of the same year, justice had ordered that this overrun be compensated for on “ December 31, 2022, at the latest “, paving the way for a future revival of this case by NGOs.
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(With AFP)