It’s the first time a court condemned the French state over its climate policy.
The French government failed to do enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change as it had pledged to do under the Paris climate agreement, a Paris administrative court ruled Wednesday.
The court also said France was partly responsible for a change in the composition of the atmosphere tied to greenhouse gas emissions — which the judgement called ecological damage — because it didn't respect its emissions reduction goals.
The case was filed in 2018 by a group of NGOs and backed by over 2 million citizens. The NGOs complained that France had failed to act to limit climate change and called on the court to order the state to take additional measures as soon as possible to limit global warming and abide by its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
"This decision marks a first historic victory for the climate and a major step forward in French law," the NGOs said in a statement. "Until now, the state denied the inadequacy of its climate policies, despite the accumulation of evidence ... we hope that justice will not be limited to acknowledging the state's fault, but will also force it to finally take concrete measures to at least meet its climate commitments."
This is the first time a court has condemned the French state over its climate policy. The verdict follows a similar ruling in the Netherlands, where the Dutch supreme court asked the government to do more to combat climate change.
