Expressing reservations about the energy component of the purchasing power bill, the Constitutional Council issued a warning to the government: the urgency of a crisis should not justify measures that aggravate global warming.
The members of the Council, captured by more than 120 deputies and senators from the left, recalled for the first time that “the preservation of the environment must be sought in the same way as the other fundamental interests of the nation.”
Two “interpretative reservations”
Certainly they validated on Friday the two texts of laws on purchasing power but they issued two “reservations of interpretation” in the energy part.
On the one hand, the law provides for exceptions to the Environmental Code for the start-up of the floating LNG terminal in Le Havre, on the other hand, it must allow the raising of the maximum limit of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in the event threat to the security of electricity supply.
Specifically, “the State will not be able to definitively authorize this LNG terminal or this raising of emission ceilings, it will necessarily have to be framed, justified, temporary, proportionate,” Arnaud Gossement, associate professor in Paris, explains to AFP. and a lawyer specializing in environmental law.
“Above the market, emissions will have to be compensated, therefore carbon offset. The obligation to respect greenhouse gas emission quotas rises almost to a constitutional level and crosses a level”, estimates Corinne Lepage, former Minister of Ecology and lawyer specializing in environmental law.
“A turning point for the environment”
The Constitutional Council grants, for the first time, authority to the Environmental Charter, desired by President Jacques Chirac, integrated into the French Constitution in 2005 and “it is a decision that constitutes a turning point in terms of the environment”, continues Corinne Lepage .
The preamble to the Charter, which until then had only symbolic value, thus enters the race for ecological transition, at a time when scientists are constantly warning about the ravages of global warming.
“It will change two things: the Constitutional Council can reduce the scope of the measures voted by Parliament, as it has just done in the LNG terminal, and create a duty of justification for the State”, sums up Arnaud Gossement.
“A fail”
But meanwhile, in the midst of a hot, dry summer that hints at the France of 2050, “everything is validated” and “the ‘fundamental interests’ have a good back, even when the threat in terms of gas supply is neither serious or unstoppable,” laments Julien Bayou, president of the environmental group in the National Assembly.
“It is a call to order from the City Council”, but “we know very well that it does not work like that, there is so much money injected into this type of project that they will have to be made profitable. another crisis, another gap, to continue in this guilt”, said Justine Ripoll, campaign director of the NGO for the defense of the environment “Notre Affaire à Tous”, at the origin of the appeal against the State for climate inaction.
By authorizing this LNG terminal, “this law is a milestone in terms of non-ecological transition”, for her part, Sandrine Rousseau, Nupes-EELV deputy.
Source: BFM TV
