Court gives France 3-month deadline
In a ruling hailed by campaigners as "historic", France's top administrative court yesterday gave the government a three-month deadline to show it is taking action to meet its commitments on climate change.
The government of France, which brokered the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, was hauled before the Council of State by Grande-Synthe, a low-lying northern coastal town which is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change.
The Council, which rules on disputes over public policies, noted that "while France has committed itself to reducing its emissions by 40% in 2030 compared to 1990 levels, it has, in recent years, regularly exceeded the 'carbon budgets' it had set itself." It also noted that President Emmanuel Macron's government had, in a decree in April, deferred much of the reduction efforts beyond 2020.
In January 2019, the then Greens mayor of Grande-Synthe, Damien Careme petitioned the Council of State over what he called the government's "climate inaction".
Careme said his town of 23,000 people, which is built on land reclaimed from the sea, risked being flooded by rising sea levels.
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