“The more time passes, the higher the cost of inaction”: Greenpeace France, Notre affaires à tous and Oxfam announced this Wednesday morning that they had requested 1.1 billion euros in penalty payments against the State, in order to make up for the accumulated delay in the fight against climate change. In October 2021, the Paris administrative court ruled in favor of the NGOs grouped together as part of the “Affair of the century” and ordered to “repair” the unfulfilled commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The government had until December 31, 2022 to put measures in place. But for the requesting NGOs, the climate policies implemented are still not up to scratch. They are asking for a penalty payment of 122 million euros for each new semester of additional delay in the future.
Admittedly, France’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by 2.5% last year, according to the latest figures from Citepa – the body responsible for counting them. This has enabled the State to stay within the limits of the objectives set within the framework of the national low-carbon strategy (SNBC). But these have been scaled downafter France was unable to meet its commitments, as recalled by the collective general delegate of Notre affaires à tous, Jérémy Suissa.
No “sustainable, structuring and systematic” measures, according to NGOs
Moreover, for the NGOs, this drop in greenhouse gas emissions is not due to the State’s desire to compensate for its climate inaction. Greenpeace’s communications manager, Pierre Terras, rather points to the need to deal with the energy crisis linked to the conflict in Ukraine and the “particularly mild” winter that we have experienced, castigating in passing measures considered to be “empty shells”. , such as the banning of illuminated panels from 1 to 6 a.m., or even actions deemed “counterproductive”, such as the opening of an LNG terminal in Le Havre, which could allow the import of shale gas from United States, while its production is prohibited on French territory.
Questioning of the “Zero net artificialisation” objective, examined this week in the National Assembly, bans on domestic flights revised downwards, abandonment of the proposal to ban airport extension projects… “90% measures inherited from the citizens’ convention for the climate” have been “partially or totally joked”, still believes Pierre Terras (an observation which is in line with the report drawn up by the media Reporterre). The communication manager denounces a “policy of small steps, small gestures, retreats” and an absence of “sustainable, structuring and systemic measures. »
Different calculation methods
To calculate the amount of the penalty, the NGOs claim to have relied on the “Quinet method”, after the name of the chairman of the commission who tried to quantify the value of the ton of carbon avoided in a report submitted to the government, in early 2019. Oxfam’s chief executive, Cécile Duflot, pointed out that there may be other ways to calculate the investments needed to put in place public policies that measure up. Made public in May, the Pisany Ferry Mahfouz report estimates that France will have to invest an additional 66 billion euros per year by 2030. “It will be up to the court to choose,” added Cécile Duflot.
Beyond the penalty, the NGOs are asking the State to rewrite the National Low Carbon Strategy and to set up monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. They also set a target for the immediate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 6% for the transport sector, 3% for the building sector, through the renovation of 450,000 housing units per year, and wish that the share of surface area useful agricultural be increased “as soon as possible” to 20%, against only 8.5% in 2018, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Lack of transparency
Finally, they ask the State to demonstrate greater transparency: according to them, it has refused to deliver documents making it possible to report on the effectiveness of its climate policies, despite the support of the Commission for Access to Documents administrative (CADA). Another appeal was filed this very morning in order to oblige the State to “communicate these documents”, indicated Jérémy Suissa.
In 2021 And 2022, the Council of State has already condemned the State to three fines of ten million euros per half-year of delay for its failure to respect the air pollution thresholds. On the other hand, the highest administrative body has, for the moment, refrained from hitting the State in the portfolio in the other case questioning the effectiveness of our climate policies, initiated by Grande-Synthe (North) and now supported by the City of Paris and the Affair of the Century associations. The Council of State, however, rejected the report presented by the government and considered that nothing can guarantee that it will keep its climate trajectory, ordering it once again to take new measures by June 2024.