Members of the French Citizens’ Climate Convention said today that the government did a poor job of translating their advice into law.
“We believe that the bill submitted by the government is not as ambitious as the work we have done,†Jean-Pierre Cabrol, one of the convention’s members, told French media following a final meeting of the group.
The draft climate law would ban fossil fuel advertisements, certain domestic flights and new cars emitting more than 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer by 2030. It would also create a new offense of ecocide.
But participants in the democratic exercise expressed their disappointment with the outcome, concluding the bill didn’t match the convention’s ambition. As part of a scoring exercise, they gave it a mark of only 3.7 out of 10.
Another member called on MPs to raise the ambition of the law through amendments. It will be discussed in parliament from March 8.
The convention, composed of 150 randomly selected citizens and created in October 2019 in response to the Yellow Jacket protests, was tasked with advising the government on ways to boost France’s green transition and slash greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent within the next decade.
Participants gathered over the weekend to assess the government’s performance in translating some of its 149 proposals into law.
The conclusions followed similar assessments by independent experts and government advisory bodies. The French Environmental, Economic and Social Committee and the High Council for Climate have strongly criticized the draft.
“We had an objective that was very ambitious,†Cabrol said. “There is no bitterness but there can be disappointment.â€
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