French court orders state to honor its climate commitments

A French court has ordered the state to honor its commitments on climate change, environmental organizations bringing the case said on Thursday, October 14.

France is one of several countries where environmental activists are using the judicial system to force their governments to take faster action against global warming.

“We have won. The state must not only catch up on its delays but must also repair any damages,” Oxfam France director Cecile Duflot said on Twitter.

There was no immediate comment from government officials.

Oxfam is one of four organizations that brought the case against the French government, along with Greenpeace and Fondation Nicolas Hulot.

“The French state has been condemned … Its climate change inaction has been largely sanctioned,” Greenpeace France director Jean-Francois Julliard tweeted.

The Paris administrative tribunal ruling, seen by Reuters, orders the French government to take all necessary measures to repair ecological damage and to prevent the worsening of the situation by the end of 2022 at the latest.

In August, France’s highest administrative court had already fined the state 10 million euros ($11.6 million) failing to improve air quality in several areas of the country.

Environmental activists in several European countries are using the courts to force governments to respect their climate change commitments.

In April, Germany’s top court ruled that the country must update its climate law by the end of next year to set out how it will cut carbon emissions down nearly to zero by 2050.

At the end of 2019, the Dutch High Court also ordered the government to step up its fight against climate change and to cut greenhouse gas emissions faster than planned. – Rappler.com

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