By expressing reservations on the energy component of the bill on purchasing power, the Constitutional Council issued a warning to the government: the urgency of a crisis must not justify measures aggravating global warming.
The members of the Constitutional Council, seized 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”.
They certainly validated the two texts of laws on purchasing power on Friday but issued two “reservations of interpretation” on the energy part.
On the one hand, the law provides for derogations from the Environmental Code for the commissioning of the floating LNG terminal in Le Havre, on the other hand, it must allow the raising of the ceiling for greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in case of a threat to the security of electricity supply.
Concretely, “the State will not be able to definitively authorize this LNG terminal or this raising of the emission ceilings, it will necessarily have to be framed, justified, temporary, proportionate”, explains to AFP Arnaud Gossement, associate professor in Paris. I and a lawyer specializing in environmental law.
“Above the market, it will be necessary to offset emissions, therefore to offset carbon. 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.
An authority with the Environmental Charter
The Constitutional Council gives, 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 which constitutes a turning point in terms of environment”, continues Corinne Lepage.
The preamble to the Charter, which until then had only symbolic value, is thus entering the race for ecological transition, at a time when scientists are constantly raising alarm 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 on the LNG terminal, and create a duty of justification for the State”, summarizes Arnaud Gossement.
But in the meantime, in the heart of a hot and dry summer which gives a glimpse of France in 2050, “everything is validated” and “the + fundamental interests + have a good back even as the threat in terms of gas supplies n It is neither serious nor unstoppable”, regrets Julien Bayou, president of the environmental group at the National Assembly.
“It’s a call to order from the Council”, but “we know very well that it doesn’t work like that, there is so much money injected into this kind of project that it will have to be made profitable. It will be enough another crisis, another breach, to continue in this fault,” said Justine Ripoll, campaign manager for the environmental defense NGO “Notre Affaire à Tous”, at the origin of the recourse against the State for climate inaction.
By authorizing this LNG terminal, “this law is a landmark in terms of ecological non-transition”, for its part, Sandrine Rousseau, deputy Nupes-EELV.