Brussels (Brussels Morning) France’s Citizens’ Climate Convention, a public panel of 150 randomly selected citizens, has rated the government’s efforts poorly by slamming its “unambitious” response to rein in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, RFI reports.
The panel, which met for its final session this weekend via a videoconference, gave President Emmanuel Macron’s administration an overall grade of 3.7 out of 10 for its proposed climate change laws. Some 119 citizens out of the initially selected 150 registered for the final vote.
“This is disappointing,” CCC member Benoit Baubry told Radio Franceinfo. “This climate reduction bill is not ambitious enough, and does not meet our recommendations. We call upon MPs to help us put new amendments in place in order to reduce carbon emissions as much as possible”.
Reducing emissions
France previously committed to reducing its carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, aiming to bring about change through the draft law implementing 146 proposals by French citizens. However, the CCC panel returned below average scores on most of the main topics covered in the draft law. Their verdict culminated in a grade of 2.5 on whether the act would succeed in achieving target emission cuts.
This is a second public indictment of the Macron government’s attempts to combat climate crisis. Last week, the High Council on Climate, also set up by Macron, panned the climate bill, calling it “weak and insufficient”. It warned that the country would fail to meet its Paris Agreement targets unless the bill was improved.