Grande Synthe Case, Season 3: The Judge Tries To Keep Up The Pressure On The French Government To Achieve The Objective Of Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 40% By 2030

• Published date: 05 July 2023
• Subject Matter: Environment, Energy and Natural Resources, Energy Law, Environmental Law, Oil, Gas & Electricity, Climate Change, Clean Air / Pollution
• Law Firm: Soulier Avocats
• Author: Ms Laure Marolleau

On July 1, 2021, in a case brought by the municipality of Grande-Synthe and several environmental organizations, the Conseil d'État (French Administrative Supreme Court) had ordered the French Government to take all necessary measures before March 31, 2022 to meet the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, in order inter alia to comply with the Paris Agreement and the European commitments taken on by the French legislature¹.

Almost two years later, the Conseil d'État found that its decision had not been enforced. In a ruling dated May 10, 2023, it ordered the French Government to take new measures by June 30, 2024, and to submit a progress report by December 31, 2023 detailing these new measures and their effectiveness².

Background

This is the 3rd time that the Conseil d'État has ruled on this case brought inter alia by the municipality of Grande-Synthe and several environmental associations.

On November 19, 2020, in an initial ruling, the Conseil d'État had held that the target for reducing the level of GHG produced by France set by Article L. 100-4 of the French Energy Code and Annex I of Regulation (EU) 2018/842 of May 30, 2018 was binding on the French Government and that the Conseil d'État had jurisdiction to monitor the achievement of this target³. As the Conseil d'État had agreed to monitor compliance with a future trajectory, without waiting for the 2030 deadline to check whether such trajectory it has been effectively met, it ordered further preparatory inquiries to obtain from the French Government any information or elements likely to establish that it was taking adequate actions to meet the GHG emissions reduction trajectory.

On July 1, 2021, in a second ruling, the Conseil d'État found that the measures already taken at that date were not compatible with this trajectory and that additional measures were necessary. It therefore enjoined the French Government to take by March 31, 2022 "all appropriate measures" to curb greenhouse gas emissions produced in France, in order to meet the GHG emissions reduction trajectory and to achieve the reduction targets set by law. Once again, the Conseil d'État attempted to adapt to this unusual dispute by leaving it up to the French Government to decide on the appropriate measures to be taken.

It is in these circumstances that judicial enforcement proceedings were instituted in October 2022 as the claimants asked the Conseil d'État to hold that its ruling of July 1, 2021 had not been enforced by the French Government.

Having received the information transmitted by the Government to substantiate its actions, as well as the observations of the Grande-Synthe municipality, the city of Paris and the claimant associations, the Conseil d'État had to...