Laurent Fabius came out, Monday, July 11, of his traditional reserve. The President of the Constitutional Council criticized the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to limit the federal means to fight against global warming.
In a judgment that could more broadly complicate all the regulatory efforts of the American State, the high court considered on June 30 that the Agency for the protection of the environment could not enact general rules to regulate the emissions of coal-fired power plants, which produce almost 20% of the electricity in the United States.
The judgment was adopted by the six conservative judges of the Supreme Court on the last day of a historic session, marked by the end of the right to abortion and the sanctuarization of those who bear arms.
“It’s serious, usually constitutional courts do not comment on the decisions of other constitutional courts, but here I am going to make an exception, because it is all the same very, very special, because the decisions taken by the American Supreme Court impact not only Americans but the entire world”, denounced on France 2 the former president of COP21.
Appointing US judges for life is not a ‘very good solution’
“When the American Supreme Court decides that the national environment agency can no longer give directives, particularly in terms of stopping coal, to the States, that has repercussions for the whole world, since the United States is the second CO emitter2 in the world, so it is quite daunting”he explained.
Recalling the critical voices that speak of “the ideologization of judges” and “government of judges”the former prime minister felt that, “clearly yes”the justices of the Supreme Court went out of their role.
“It has consequences that we have to think about, moreover, it is that appointing judges for life does not seem to me a very good solution and appointing judges on ideological bases, which is the case in the United States , it is also not desirable”he analyzed.
US President Joe Biden has denounced a decision “devastating” and pledged to continue “to use the powers that [lui] are awarded to protect public health and combat the climate crisis”.