French citizens bring their climate case to Brussels

The 150 randomly selected citizens who took part in the process have been invited by the European Parliament’s environment committee chair Pascal Canfin to present their work to EU lawmakers in the fall | Stephane De Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images

French citizens bring their climate case to Brussels

Citizens democracy is coming to Brussels, and it’s demanding radical climate action.

By LOUISE GUILLOT 7/22/20, 3:41 PM CET Updated 7/25/20, 6:03 AM CET

https://www.politico.eu/article/french-citizens-bring-their-climate-case-to-brussels/

The French government’s experiment in letting direct democracy shape the country’s climate laws could have repercussions well beyond Paris.

After nine months of discussion and 149 new proposals to slash greenhouse gas emissions, the members of France’s citizens’ climate convention are now planning to bring their agenda to the EU stage in a bid to ensure their ideas have European resonance.

“It is in our interest to defend our measures according to the European agenda, at the right time and to the right people,” Amandine Roggeman, a 26-year-old who works in the cultural sector, said in an interview, adding that a delegation of the convention wants to come to Brussels after the summer break to meet with MEPs and commissioners.

The 150 randomly selected citizens who took part in the process have been invited by the European Parliament’s environment committee chair Pascal Canfin to present their work to EU lawmakers in the fall, his office confirmed to POLITICO. Canfin is a member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche party.

Macron set up the climate convention as a response to the Yellow Jacket demonstrations, which began in 2018 in protest against plans to hike fuel taxes to finance decarbonization efforts, and sparked months of major disruption. Despite being largely a national exercise, the convention’s conclusions in June also urged the French government to push some action at the EU level.

The convention was just a "communication operation [from the French government] rather than a serious experiment" — Agnès Evren, MEP

Ireland and the U.K. have set up similar bodies.

And while participants said they feel the French government has taken the process seriously so far — not least since it spent €5.4 million to make the convention happen — they want to ensure their ideas turn into binding measures as soon as possible.

Macron said some of the proposals will be incorporated into the country’s economic recovery plan expected in September, and that the government will also present an environmental bill transposing the measures after the summer break. Last week he promised to consider their demand to put some proposals to a referendum.

"It’s not enough to say we've done a good job, that the measures we proposed are interesting,” said Muriel Picard, another participant and the co-chair of the association gathering the convention members after the experiment. "We can’t wait for the presidential election [in 2022] to see results.”

But there are voices of caution about the convention and how it fits in the framework of a traditional representative democracy.

For French MEP Agnès Evren from the conservative European People's Party, the convention was just a "communication operation [from the French government] rather than a serious experiment."

"The vast majority of these proposals stem from an outdated ecological ideology, and are above all scientifically questionable and disconnected from people's reality," she said in a statement, adding that she "deeply regrets" that the convention favored taxes, bans and constraints over more incentivizing measures.

"I want to point out that the work of local, national and European elected representatives on the [green] transition is real and fruitful, even though we were not chosen randomly," she said, arguing that MEPs have been working on measures to implement the European Green Deal without waiting for the French convention's ideas.

EU arguments

That note of skepticism isn't stopping convention members from their Brussels lobbying push.

They are targeting the EU’s sway over agricultural programs as one line of attack. “By 2030, we want French and European agriculture to have profoundly evolved toward a more sustainable and environmentally friendly production,” said the convention's final report.

That includes using Common Agricultural Policy funds to push farmers to increase organic farming and reduce pesticide use, as well as setting a minimum wage for small farmers and fishermen. They also want to boost EU action against overfishing; implement a carbon border adjustment mechanism by 2024; raise taxation on aviation; and add a European label on products showing carbon footprint, recyclability and recycled material content.

Onbogo called France’s support for the CETA trade deal between the EU and Canada a “unacceptable."

Some of the convention's members feel the EU needs a push to prioritize the green transition.

“That’s why it is very important to explain all these measures at the European level to try to raise awareness, to boost the CAP and change international agreements,” said Kisito Onbogo, a 44-year-old who works on a production line in an aeronautics factory.

The convention wants the EU to reform its trade policy to align trade deals with the Paris climate agreement and questions the need for dispute settlement mechanisms it feels allows "companies to attack states when they adopt environmental protection measures.”

Onbogo called France’s support for the CETA trade deal between the EU and Canada as “unacceptable,” arguing it will increase greenhouse gas emissions and lower environmental standards. “If you look at everything that is written in these international agreements, sometimes it is hard to understand how such practices can be allowed in the European Union,” he said.

Canfin's invitation will allow convention members to address MEPs, but there's no guarantee any of their ideas will make it into EU policy.

Roggeman said that one of her main objectives is to ensure that politicians don’t cherry-pick only a few measures to implement.

“All these measures are interdependent, they complement each other, and we're really trying to get people to understand that,” she said. “We're not naive, we know we haven’t reinvented the wheel,” she added, but said she’s hoping to bring public attention to ideas that in some cases have been blocked in parliaments for a long time.