The Climate Bill, which is soon to be put before French institutions, first the Council of Ministers and then the Parliament, is already sparking debate. This Bill was supposed to incorporate the proposals resulting from the Citizen Convention for the Climate (CCC), but text which was released recently has considerably scaled down its ambitions. Initially announced as a minor revolution in environmental law, it is finally little more than a simple communication stunt and underlines the French Government’s lack of ecological ambition. The government could however soon be forced to adapt to developments in European law.
Initially ambitious proposals, resulting from innovative citizen reflection in France
The CCC was set up following the Grand National Debate of 2019, and constituted an unprecedented democratic experience in France. 150 citizens selected at random took part in a workshop to prepare a law fighting against climate change. Meeting regularly over a period of six months, the group collected information, debated and finally defined around a hundred measures in order to achieve a 40% reduction in national GHG emissions by 2030.
Among the more ambitious proposals put forward by these citizens, integrating the notion of the crime of ecocide into French law received particular attention. In order to prevent or redress actions affecting ecosystems in the short or long term, French citizens have been campaigning for a new criminal liability to be adopted. The idea is that, whatever the reason for the pollution – intent, negligence or mere carelessness – the perpetrator could face more than 15 years in prison, and a heavy fine including the costs of repairing the damage.
Watered down to a simple general pollution offense in the face of employer pressure
The result is that the concept of crime has been abandoned, and been replaced by a simple offense with much less serious financial and legal consequences. Also, although the name of ecocide remains inscribed in the text, it is rather a “general pollution offense”, reprehensible only in certain very specific cases: the only pollution offenses liable to be punished are deliberately committed acts leading to serious and lasting effects on health, fauna and flora for at least ten years.
Limited impacts highlighting the French Government’s lack of ambition
The multiple changes inflicted on the citizens’ proposals underline the lack of ambition within the French Government which, instead of responding to the ecological emergency, prefers to pursue short-term economic interests. The text will be debated in the Assembly at the end of March, but there is little hope for a real change.
Progress will be made at European level, let’s keep hope!
Not all is lost however! While no measure of this kind had ever been taken at supranational level, the European Parliament created a surprise by adopting, on Tuesday 20 January, an amendment recognizing the notion of ecocide in its annual report on human rights and democracy. This is good news which could lead to ecocide being included in European law and, consequently, in the law governing each member state. It is also a way of speeding up the debates so that ecocide is finally recognized before the International Criminal Court, on the same basis as crime against Humanity.
