The French citizens’ convention on climate change

Dadomo, Christian

Abstract

Following the French President’s speech of 25 April 2019 in which Emmanuel Macron announced a change in the decision-making process regarding the ecological transition agenda, a Citizens’ Convention for climate change was set up in October 2019.
Unprecedented democratic experiment in France and inspired from the Irish citizens’ assemblies and slightly different from the classic “Grenelle de l‘environnement” of the previous decade , the mandate and the objective of this Convention were to rethink all concrete and practical measures designed to help French citizens cope better with climatic change in the fields of transports, housing insulation and home energy-efficiency improvements with the view to rendering them more efficient; to design complementary incentives or restricting measures and their financing.
Made up of 150 chosen at random citizens representing the French society’s diversity, the good working of the Convention is guaranteed by a tripartite institutional structure comprising:
- A governance committee in charge of drawing up the work programme and lead the workings of the Convention;
- A guarantors’ committee ensuring that the principles of impartiality, independence and deontology are complied with
- A technical and legal support to ensure the legal transcription of the its proposals.
Following 8 months of discussion and debate, the Citizens’ Convention on climate made public its 150 proposals on 18 June 2020, which are grouped into 6 clusters namely housing, food, consumer behaviour, means of transport, and means of production. The proposals which also include constitutional amendments have been communicated to the government and Parliament.
This article provides an overview of this new form of citizens’ engagement in climate change policies, of some of the proposals made by the Convention and of their legislative follow-up.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 29, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2021
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: May 27, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: May 27, 2021
• Journal: IUCN AEL Journal of Environmental Law
• Electronic ISSN: 1929-6088
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Issue: 11
• Pages: 76-84
• Keywords: climate change; citizens' convention; French law on climate change
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7426741
• Publisher URL: https://www.iucnael.org/en/academy-journal/previous-issues/86-journal/issue/646-issue-2020