French High Court Questions Macron's Commitment To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

French President Emmanuel Macron (Twitter / @ emmanuelmacron)

JAKARTA - The commitment of French President Emmanuel Macron to fight climate change is being questioned again. France's highest court gave Macron a deadline to ensure he fulfills his commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in France in the next three months.

Launched by Reuters on Friday, November 20, in the decision of the Conseil d'Etat, the court saw Macron's climate policy as showing no significant results. Even though France is the place where the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change is held.

However, the court noted that France had missed the target and had postponed many plans for reducing emissions by 2020. As a result, the French High Court later gave a warning.

"If the justification provided by the government is not satisfactory, the Conseil d'Etat could then consider taking further steps towards achieving its target of 40% reduction in emissions by 2030," the court said in a press release.

Previously, the case was brought to justice by the Grande-Synthe Commune in northern France. City authorities in northern France considered Macron's efforts to combat climate change as minimal. As a result, their city, which is built on reclaimed land, is in danger of being swallowed up due to rising sea levels caused by global warming.

For this reason, due to the move by the high court to issue a final decision, environmental activists in France consider the Conseil d'Etat decision to be a historic decision. This is because the government cannot file an appeal. Apart from staying on track to reduce emissions as targeted.

"By affirming the binding nature of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets contained in the law, the highest administrative court puts the country face to face with its responsibility in the climate crisis," said Greenpeace and Oxfam in a joint statement with two other environmental NGOs.