FRANCE: Law proposed to criminalise ecocide
A step forward was taken in France in 2020, with the announcement of a planned law on ecocide, which would make serious intentional damage to the environment a criminal offence. Encouragingly, the idea for the proposed law came not from the government but from a citizen’s assembly, in which a group of 150 randomly selected people were convened to discuss policies on the climate crisis.
Following the gilet jaunes protests, which had been triggered by a hike in fuel taxes, President Macron convened a Citizens’ Climate Assembly, giving 150 randomly selected French citizens a mandate to discuss and propose policies for addressing the climate crisis. And the citizen’s assembly came back with the proposal to criminalise ecocide! If you ask the people, for most of them, criminalising ecocide is a ‘no-brainer’.
Jojo Mehta
