Parliament definitively adopts the text criticized by NGOs for its lack of ambition



“Ecological turning point” for the government, law of “renunciations” for environmental NGOs. Tuesday evening, the National Assembly voted 233 votes against 35 the adoption of the climate bill. Shortly before, the right-wing majority Senate had also adopted the text by show of hands. A compromise had been found between the two chambers after long negotiations a week ago.

“The result of an unprecedented democratic exercise initiated by the Citizen’s Convention for the Climate”, this law “will bring ecology into our lives and preserve the environment in our daily actions”, rejoiced Prime Minister Jean. Castex on Twitter. In front of parliamentarians, the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili praised a “huge cultural shift” and an ecology of “common sense” with measures such as the removal of domestic airlines in the event of alternatives by train of less than 2:30 or the ban on the rental of “thermal strainers” – G and F classified housing – in 2025 and 2028.

“A feeling of waste”

If the text is inspired by the work of the 150 members of the Citizen’s Climate Convention, the latter as well as environmental NGOs denounce the “unraveling” of their proposals. After several marches for “a real climate law”, a new demonstration took place Tuesday near the Assembly against a text of “small steps” during a “five-year term lost for the climate”.

Presented in early 2021, the bill reflects part of the 146 proposals of the Convention that Emmanuel Macron had retained. The constitutional aspect, in order to engrave the climate in the Fundamental Law by referendum, was abandoned for lack of agreement between the two chambers. “Despite some symbolic victories” such as the generalization of a weekly vegetarian menu in canteens, this text “leaves us with a feeling of waste”, judges the NGO WWF France.

Will France be able to meet its commitments?

Associated with other texts and the recovery plan, this climate bill “allows” France “to move towards the objective of -40%” of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990, we assure the Ministry of Ecological Transition, which promises an “application” of the text “as quickly as possible”. But the High Council for the Climate, an independent body, and the Council of State, the highest French administrative court, express serious doubts about the capacity of the State to respect its commitments of the Paris Agreement of 2015.

This law “makes it possible to set a course” but “additional measures will be necessary”, estimated the LR rapporteur of the Senate Marta de Cidrac. Especially since the French trajectory should be even more demanding, with the new climate package unveiled by the European Union. The Commission, which aims to reduce the continent’s emissions by 55% in 2030 compared to 1990, calls for a ban on the sale of thermal vehicles from 2035 – a French law of 2019 aims for 2040.

Limited measures

In the meantime, the bill has already given rise to many showdowns. Against a “punitive ecology”, the senatorial right has scrapped to the end in an attempt to delay the deployment in 2025 of low-emission zones, without polluting vehicles, in agglomerations of more than 150,000 inhabitants. Senators have stepped up certain aspects such as advertising, with the 2028 ban on advertising for the most polluting vehicles, in order to prepare consumers for the end of their marketing.

Marked by the “yellow vests” movement, born from a fuel tax, the government has regularly stressed the need to combine “ecological ambition” and “social acceptability”. The possible implementation of a heavy goods vehicle eco-tax will be limited to voluntary regions, even border regions such as Alsace. On the agricultural side, a tax on nitrogenous fertilizers is only “considered” if the emission reduction targets are not met.





Source link