The Citizens’ Convention on Climate – Episode #2: The 149 proposed measures

In the first episode of this series, I introduced the Citizens’ Convention on Climate and how it worked. Now it’s time to present its outcomes: 149 proposed measures, whose has been officially received by the President Emmanuel Macron on June 29^th.

How should we read the proposed measures?

They are not a pick and choose concept, but interdependent measures organised in five different field of action called “theme”. These themes are:

• Consumption
• Production & work
• Transportation and getting around
• Living & Housing
• Food sector

In addition, two modifications of the French Constitution have been proposed, “in order to guarantee, in the basis law of the French Republic, the fight against climate change and in favour of the environment, as these have become vital stakes for the living system”. Thus the proposed constitutional changes are transversal and do not belong to a particular theme.

Then, each theme encompasses several families of goals. Let’s take the example of the “transportation and getting around” theme, in which the families of goals are tackling the following topics:

• the use of private cars,
• merchandises’ transportation
• vehicles’ regulations
• the organization of transportation together with enterprises and public administrations
• aviation transportation

Further, each family has at least one goal, and each goal encompasses at least one proposed action. Thus the proposed measures are means to reach the goal they belong to. Out of the 149 proposed measures, 80 already have a legal transcription proposed in the final report. The remaining proposed measures can serve as compass, and/or could also be subject to legislative transcription in the law or in regulations.

The 150 citizens voted on the goals which include the proposed measures that France should implement if it wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. To a certain extent, these goals and their related measures are translating the very abstract mission of reducing greenhouse gas emission to a series of concrete and comprehensive milestones.

Enough of your lengthy introduction, could we please have an idea of what are these proposed measures?

YES! You can find them in French here, and in English below! I mainly used the translation made by democracy international, though organised it in a table for an (hopefully) easier overview. You can download it below.

How have the proposed measures been selected?

Not only should the proposed measures be participating in the reduction of France’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40% compared to 1990, but the 150 citizens of the Climate Convention decided that the measures had to meet the these three other conditions:

1) The goal of which the proposed measures belong to had to reach a consensus among the 150: the ones without consensus (as for one which proposed to reduce working time), have not been presented. Therefore, one has to understand that the proposed measures have already been analysed and debated by the 150.

Note: all goals voted by the 150 reached a solid consensus. Most of them have been agreed by more than 80%. This consensus has been criticized by many saying that it was not representative of the French population. However, the 150 have different opinions, different work, different social background, different origins, different age… To re-iterate, these 150 citizens were selected at random, with adjustment so it represented the French population as much as possible (see episode 1 of this series). Reportedly, some of them did not even believe in Climate Change prior their contribution to the Convention. There is one bias though: the fact that all of them accepted to take part to the experiment and work of the convention. But it that bias strong enough to make all of the 150 environmental radical activists? The School of Economy in Paris ran a test between 1003 French and the 150 to see how they considered climate change. Reportedly, the answers are similar. Therefore, one could say that against factually explained problems, it should be possible to find a solution that reaches a consensus among different people. This is the opinion of Stéphane Foucart, in an editorial in the French newspaper Le Monde.

2) The proposed measures had to be fair, otherwise not aligned with the missions of social justice the 150 were mandated to respect as well.

3) The proposed measures had to have a significant impact. E.g. measure with limited potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were ruled out.

The proposed measures do not belong to a political agenda. They have truly been developed by citizens who are “neither experts, nor activists” but realized “the high stakes” and consequently proposed measures to be implemented. As one of the 150 highlighted in her speech to the President Macron: “it is not a question of being an environmentalist or not, it is a question of common sense”.

What’s next for the 149 proposed measures?

On June 29^th, the President Emmanuel Macron officially received the proposed measures in the Elysée garden. While he, to some extent, praised the work achieved by the 150, he used 3 “wild cards”. In other words: a statement of non-support of three proposed measures.

First wild card: he refused to support the proposed 4% tax on dividends, of which the sums would feed in the ecological transition budget. His argument is following: heavy taxation would frighten investors, investors who, in his opinion, are necessary to finance the ecological transition. However, he did not quote in his speech the whole measures, which I think is necessary: Companies that distribute more than €10 million in annual dividends will contribute 4% [of the annual dividends] of the financing effort each year and those whose dividends are less than or equal to €10 million will contribute 2% [proposed action n° PT3.2].

Second wild card: he refuses to support the 110km/h limitation on highways. His argument: one should not exclude workers who are regularly using the highways, as well as avoid that this measures becomes the scapegoat against all proposed measures, e.g. that every person needing to drive at 130km/h on the highways do not became ‘enemy’ of the Citizens’ Climate Convention.

Third wild card: the modification of the preamble of the French Constitution with the following addition: “The reconciliation of the resulting rights, freedoms and principles should not compromise the preservation of the environment, which is the common heritage of humankind.”. His refusal is based on this argument: according a right to nature that could be above human rights would not be coherent with the project and philosophy of the Enlightenment, that is the basis of the French Republic. Consequently, this could lead to make environment above the value of the [French] Republic such as civil liberties and democratic rules.

Beyond these three wild cards, I noticed from his speech that he managed to tweak at least three other proposed measures:

• The proposed measure SD-E2 that aims at “gradually organising the end of air traffic on domestic flights by 2025, only on routes where there is a low-carbon alternative that is satisfactory in terms of price and time (on a journey of less than 4 hours).” He stated that these limit should not be 4 hours but 2,5 hours. His argument: avoid the land locking of already economically disadvantaged regions.
• The proposed measure SN4.1.1. asks to renegotiate the CETA in order to incorporate the climate objectives of the Paris Agreement. Emmanuel Macron clearly stated that he would rather continue evaluating its implementation, and should the evaluation indicate that the CETA is not compatible with the Paris Agreement, then he would be “the first” to raise the issue.
• The proposed measure SN7.1 wants to introduce the notion of, and penalize, the crime of ecocide. The President said he would defend this notion on the international scene. As for the proposed proposed legal wording for the French criminal law, he’d rather re-work the proposal made by the 150 so it becomes “compatible with our [the French] core principles”.

The remaining measures have been put on the French government’s agenda for the summer:

• Some proposed measures will be part of the economic recovery plan presented by the new Prime Minister Jean Castex on July 15^th, including a EUR 20 billions budget for, among others, the thermal renovation of buildings, public transport, local and sustainable agriculture, green technologies and cycling plan.
• A number of proposed measures will be worked during summer together with social partners, administrations and parliamentarians in order to be presented to the Parliament in a few months to become bills.
• The proposed measures that are rather regulations will be forwarded to the Ecological Defense Council by the end of July.
• Some measures should be treated at the regional level, and it will be necessary to bring together local elected representatives.
• Other proposed measures should be negotiated at the international level (e.g. trade treaty negotiations) and should be on the President’s agenda.
• Proposed measures are to be negotiated at the European level (concerning the CAP or the carbon tax at Europe’s borders).
• The proposed modification of the first article of the Constitution to include “The Republic guarantees the preservation of biodiversity, the environment and the fight against climate change.” might be submitted to a referendum next year.

Finally, the 150 citizens will be further involved in the work with parliamentarians and have been invited to guarantee that their works does not loose its essence while being incorporated into law.

In the next episode of this series, I would like to present each theme and their goals in more details – so the story goes on! In the meanwhile, you can check out the bonus post of this Episode: my opinion about the president’s wild cards.