Court Ruling: French Government is Failing to Meet Paris Agreement Pledges

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

What is the point of President Biden rejoining the Paris Accord, when even the French cannot be bothered to keep their pledges?

Court rules France failed to respect its climate change goal

A Paris court has ruled that the French state failed to take sufficient action to fight climate change in a case brought by a group of nongovernmental organizations

By The Associated Press
3 February 2021, 20:53

In its ruling, the Paris administrative court recognized ecological damage linked to climate change and held the French state responsible for failing to fully meet its goals in reducing greenhouse gases.

But Oxfam France, Greenpeace France and two other organizations say Macron’s lobbying for global climate action is not backed up by sufficient domestic measures to curb emissions blamed for global warming.

France is missing its national targets that had been set under the 2015 Paris Agreement to curb climate change, and the country has delayed most of its efforts until after 2020.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/court-rules-france-failed-respect-climate-change-goal-75653967

What a surprise – if I have understood this court ruling correctly, turns out the champion of the Paris Agreement, President Macron of France, is a total climate hypocrite.

Perhaps the Paris Agreement was always just a vehicle for virtue signalling politicians to pretend they care.

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Paul C
February 4, 2021 5:28 am

Whilst very tempting (as an Englishman) to criticise the French, their electricity production being based on Nuclear has historically had a relatively low plant food output. Reduction from a historically low level is far more difficult. Perhaps this criticism from the courts will push them to accelerate their Nuclear renewal programme. Their Nuclear plants perform load following, but that response will not cope with the destabilisation by the increasing introduction of unreliables to the mix. That will have necessitated using gas turbines to smooth out the intermittency, so pushing up the use of fossil fuels, reducing efficiency, and stability. The Paris accord is so flawed that it is worse than useless – at least in its STATED aims.

ResourceGuy
February 4, 2021 5:33 am

The French have a long history of cheating international agreements and embargos so a loose climate agreement is easy. The Germans on the other hand got lazy with their VW cheat software.

eyesonu
February 4, 2021 5:35 am

I want to sue President Macron of France for not complying with the Paris Agreement because I have to cut my grass more often!

Laurence Zensinger
February 4, 2021 6:39 am

After Macron attempted to raise gasoline prices, in order to reduce emissions, and he was met with nationwide resistance in the form of the “yellow vests” I believe he has lost some of his enthusiasm for further diminishing people’s rights and increasing costs for average workers in the name of reducing CO2. So why isn’t he getting any credit for shutting down France’s nuclear energy program? Wait a minute–could that be the reason.

February 4, 2021 7:28 am

I’ve asked this before, but it’s worth asking again in light of the news given in the article above:

Is the penalty for France (or any other nation, for that matter) failing to meet “committed goals” made under the Paris Accord, one of the following:
— Will each person in the nation have to write out 1000 lines of “Ooops, we should have tried harder”?
— Will each taxpayer in the nation have to fork over an additional $30,000 (USD) in taxes as a penalty?
— Will all of its citizens turn into pumpkins?
— Will any housing unit or business/factory location found to still be using fossil fuel energy in 2025 automatically be forfeited to the State?
— Will the government squads come around at midnight to take away the firstborn male in each family?
— Or will it be something else that is meaningful?

Jeffery P
February 4, 2021 7:35 am

Trump really should have sent the Paris Climate Agreement to the senate for ratification as a treaty, knowing full-well it would have been rejected. This would have left us on stronger ground to oppose the Green New Deal and other climate scams.

February 4, 2021 7:48 am

The lesson to me is that a nation who joins the “Accord” becomes subject to legal actions from activist groups in their country if they can identify an area where the nation is not acting to the letter of the “Accord”. (Recent events have shown the argument does not have to be logical, “data driven” or “science based”, despite words to the contrary from Biden.)

Expect “violation of the Paris Accords” to be a prominent part of the activist suits against fossil fuel companies and the basis of “Sue and Settle” actions with Richard Windsor Gina McCarthy who developed this tool to a fine art!

February 4, 2021 8:04 am

As long as leaders create a perceived obligation, or even a promise to control the weather they will hold the door wide open to litigation over their failure to do so.

observa
February 4, 2021 8:06 am

Have the French people organized the class action against the Gummint for this yet? Are the Gang of Four putting up the equity funding or relying on carbon credit? Stay tuned folks to the burning issue of our times.

menace
February 4, 2021 9:19 am

“But Oxfam France, Greenpeace France and two other organizations say Macron’s lobbying for global climate action is not backed up by sufficient domestic measures to curb emissions blamed for global warming.”

I thought Oxfam was a “feed the poor” charity? That’s basically what their charter says.

Why would they possibly want to oppose putting more CO2 into the air when it is an undeniable fact that CO2 helps crops grow faster and more bountiful? How do they justify under their charter the action and the expenses of suing the French government?

Do not give to Oxfam!

menace
Reply to  menace
February 4, 2021 9:26 am

Interesting, on the top level, Oxfam says

Oxfam is a confederation of 20 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International.

But if you dig into details (what we believe)…

The way we see it, poverty is solvable—A problem rooted in injustice. Eliminate injustice and you can eliminate poverty.

So fighting poverty is not about providing food and shelter to the poor it is about social justice.

ResourceGuy
February 4, 2021 9:50 am

All the climate fraud will take decades to uncover and prosecute. Take for example the climate cheerleader-for-hire McKinsey Consulting. They are just now paying up to settle the lawsuits over their opioid cheerleading efforts to the tune of $580 million to the state governments that paid for the opioids in Medicaid billings.

ResourceGuy
February 6, 2021 11:54 am

But, but they paid for American climate scientists to move there during the Trump years in a highly publicized action.

Of course it fell into the category of greenwashing like the Vatican, Mckinsey Consultants, and countless others.