Recommendations of the French Climate Assembly
The members of the French Citizens' Assembly "Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat" have adopted 149 recommendations. Here are the proposals in detail.
Referendums
The Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat calls for a referendum on:
1. amending the preamble of the Constitution by adding: "The reconciliation of the resulting rights, freedoms and principles must not jeopardise the preservation of the environment, the common heritage of humanity".
VOTE: adopted with 76%
2. Amendment to Article 1 of the Constitution: "The Republic guarantees the preservation of biodiversity, the environment and the fight against climate change".
VOTE: adopted with 85%
3. Legislation on the crime of ecocide: Adopt legislation criminalising the crime of ecocide within the nine planetary boundaries, including the duty of vigilance and the crime of negligence, the implementation of which is guaranteed by the High Authority for Planetary Boundaries.
VOTE: adopted with 63.4%
All proposed measures of the Citizens' Assembly on Climate Change
Constitutional amendments
- Amend the Preamble of the Constitution to add: "The reconciliation of the resulting rights, freedoms and principles shall not jeopardise the preservation of the environment, the common heritage of humankind".
VOTE: adopted with 58%
- Amendment of Article 1 of the Constitution: "The Republic guarantees the preservation of biodiversity, the environment and the fight against climate change".
VOTE: adopted with 81%
- Strengthening the monitoring of environmental policy: The aim of the members of the Convention is to give citizens a more prominent place in the monitoring mechanism, to strengthen the effectiveness of the existing bodies and to consider the creation of an "environmental defender". To this end, the members of the Convention make several proposals: The possibility of class actions, better reporting, evaluation and monitoring mechanisms.
VOTE: adopted with 81%
- Reform of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE): The aim of the members of the Convention is to propose a reform of the CESE in order to respond to the lack of public trust in political institutions by shifting political action to a lower level of legitimacy. To this end, they propose to make the opinions of the CESE or the citizen bodies it governs more effective, visible and transparent, and to involve citizens in decision-making. To achieve this, the members of the Convention have devised various methods: Introducing mandates for randomly selected citizens and civil society, systematically consulting CESE and making its recommendations more binding.
VOTE: adopted with 59%
1. transport and mobility
Develop means of transport other than the private car
1. promote the use of environmentally friendly or shared modes of transport, especially for getting to and from work, by generalising and improving the sustainable mobility package provided for in the recent law on mobility guidelines.
2. reduce the incentive to use cars by reforming the income tax kilometre allowance system.
3. promoting the use of environmentally friendly or shared vehicles.
VOTE: adopted with 96.4%
Designing public roads to enable new modes of travelling
1. create park-and-ride facilities
2. ban driving in city centres by the vehicles that emit the most greenhouse gases
3. increase the amount of the bicycle fund from 50 million euros to 200 million euros per year to finance cycle paths.
4. general application of the construction of special lanes for shared vehicles and public transport on motorways and motorways.
VOTE: adopted with 98.6%
Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on motorways
1. reducing speed on motorways to a maximum of 110 km/h
VOTE: adopted with 59.7%
Create the conditions for reverting to the use of trains beyond high-speed lines
1. reduction of VAT on train tickets from 10% to 5.5
2. general application of the measures already practised by some regions to create attractive fares
3. development of a massive investment plan to modernise infrastructure, rolling stock and stations in order to transform them into multimodal hubs (connections with cars, buses, bicycles, etc.).
VOTE: adopted with 95.9%
Reduce long-distance transport of heavy goods vehicles emitting greenhouse gases by enabling modal shift to rail or inland waterways.
1. development of "motorways" for maritime (and river) freight transport on certain routes
2. require regular monitoring of drivers' training in eco-driving
3. require truck manufacturers to include the same energy sector in their research and development.
4. phase out tax incentives for diesel fuel in return for strong compensation for hauliers in the form of increased financial support for the purchase of new, cleaner trucks to replace polluting trucks.
5. encouraging a partial modal shift to other, less emitting means of freight transport through legal and fiscal measures.
6. oblige shippers to include environmental clauses in their contracts.
7. promoting the transport of goods on short, local routes by adjusting VAT.
VOTE: adopted with 97.3%
Reduce emissions from ships during their operation in ports (embarkation and disembarkation of passengers or goods) to zero.
1. ban the use of polluting engines while in ports and moorings
2. provide an electricity supply to ships in port to reduce emissions caused by the use of engines
3. acting in accordance with international regulations to control greenhouse gas emissions from ships.
VOTE: adopted with 95.9%
Acting on regulations and the transition to clean vehicles
1. increase the bonus for vehicles that pollute less to help households and professionals to do so.
2. strictly tighten the penalty for polluting vehicles and introduce weight as one of the criteria to be taken into account.
3. ban the placing on the market of new vehicles with high emissions from 2025; old vehicles may continue to be used in the same way as new ones.
4. change taxes on insurance policies according to the CO2 emissions of the vehicle in question to promote clean vehicles.
5. enabling access to clean vehicles through the development of long-term leasing.
6. offering interest-free loans with a government guarantee for the purchase of a low-emission (i.e. light and not too expensive) vehicle.
7. introducing green stickers on the number plates of the cleanest vehicles granting special benefits: Access to the city centre, parking spaces, etc.
8. provision of training for garages and more broadly for the "oil" sector to accompany the gradual conversion of the vehicle fleet to new engines, fuels and systems.
VOTE: adopted with 86.6%
Involve companies and administrations to rethink and better organise the travel of their employees
1. increase the use of mobility plans by making them mandatory for all companies and local authorities.
2. mobility organising authorities (AOMs) can help to set up these mobility plans to support companies
3. promoting inter-company and intra-company plans (carpooling, picking up employees by bus, bicycle, etc.) as part of mobility plans.
4. promoting new forms of work organisation
VOTE: adopted with 89.9%
Establish a central website offering all information on transport systems and means of transport in a given area.
1. setting up a central portal that makes it possible to know quickly and easily at any time what means of transport and transport systems are available in a given area in order to be mobile.
2. development of a project to standardise tickets or multimodal maps.
VOTE: adopted with 95.8%
Involve citizens in the governance of mobility at both local and national level.
1. integration of citizens in the authorities responsible for organising mobility at all levels (AOM)
VOTE: adopted with 96.6%
Limiting the negative impact of air travel
1. adoption of an increased eco-contribution per kilometre
2. by 2025, gradually organise the phasing out of air travel on domestic flights, only on routes where there is a satisfactory low-carbon alternative in terms of price and time (for a journey time of less than 4 hours)
3. prohibit the construction of new airports and the expansion of existing airports
4. increase fuel taxes for leisure aviation
5. promoting the idea of a European eco-contribution
6. ensure that all emissions that cannot be eliminated are fully offset by carbon sinks.
7. support research and development in the medium term to develop a biofuel industry for aircraft.
VOTE: adopted with 88.1%
2. consumption
Create an obligation to disclose the carbon impact of products and services.
1. make the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions mandatory in retail and consumer communications and in brand advertising.
2. develop and implement a carbon point system for all consumer products and services.
VOTE: adopted with 98.8%
Regulating advertising to reduce incentives for over-consumption
1. effectively and efficiently ban the advertising of the products that emit the most greenhouse gases in all types of advertising.
2. regulate advertising to severely limit daily and unchosen exposure to consumption incentives
3. put labels to encourage people to consume less.
VOTE: adopted with 89.6%
Limit over-packaging and the use of single-use plastics through the development of bulk purchasing, recycling and deposit in retail facilities.
1. phasing in an obligation to introduce bulk purchasing in all shops and imposing a percentage on central buyers.
2. gradually introduce a glass deposit system (washable and reusable) until a general introduction in 2025.
3. encouraging the development of bio-based compostable packaging to ensure transition before the end of single-use plastic packaging.
4. replace a significant part of the household waste disposal tax (TEOM) with a fairer and more environmentally responsible system.
VOTE: adopted with 95.9%
Ensure better implementation of the government's environmental policies and evaluate them to make them more effective.
1. monitor and sanction violations of environmental regulations more effectively and quickly
2. strengthening and centralising the evaluation and monitoring of the government's environmental policy.
VOTE: adopted with 95.9%
Education, training and awareness raising to enable responsible consumption:
1. amending the education programme for the general application of environmental education and sustainable development in the French school system
2. strengthening environmental education and sustainable development by making it a cross-cutting task for teachers.
3. raising awareness among the entire French population by linking the understanding of the climate emergency and the actions to be taken.
VOTE: adopted with 97.9%
3. living & housing
Make comprehensive energy retrofitting of buildings mandatory by 2040
1. force homeowners and landlords to comprehensively renovate their properties
2. mandate the replacement of oil and coal-fired boilers in new and renovated buildings by 2030
3. introduce a unified network of centralised public support services for households that need to carry out renovation work
4. create a tiered system of renovation assistance packages with loans and grants for those most in need
5. train construction professionals to meet the demand for general renovation and ensure a transition of all construction professions to environmentally responsible practices.
VOTE: adopted with 87.3%
Significant limitation of energy consumption in public, private and industrial sectors
1. force operators of public spaces as well as commercial and industrial buildings to reduce their energy consumption through energy-saving measures
2. bring about a significant change in behaviour by encouraging every individual to reduce their energy consumption.
3. promote the limitation of the use of heating and air conditioning in dwellings, public and publicly accessible spaces, commercial and industrial buildings (maximum average temperature of 19 degrees, no air conditioning below 25 degrees).
VOTE: adopted with 92%.
Combat land degradation and urban sprawl by making cities and villages attractive places to live.
1. define a restrictive framework of maximum developable hectares by reducing sealed land development by a factor of 2, and PLUI and PLU (Local Urban Planning Strategy) in accordance rather than compatibility with SCOT (Scheme for Territorial Coherence).
2. prohibit any development of land while commercial, artisanal or industrial redevelopment is possible or brownfield land exists within the existing urban area.
3. take immediate enforcement action to stop the development of space-intensive suburban commercial areas.
4. firmly and definitively protect natural areas, suburban agricultural areas and suburban forests. Ensure sustainable management of all private and public forests. Ensure the creation of vegetable growing belts around urban centres.
5. facilitate conversion of unoccupied cultivated land to other uses.
6. facilitating the seizure of vacant flats and offices.
7. facilitating the reclamation and redevelopment of brownfield land, in particular by allowing municipalities to expropriate brownfield land that has been abandoned for at least ten years.
8. assessing the redevelopment potential of buildings before demolition.
9. permission for the construction of apartment buildings in suburban areas.
10. strengthen monitoring of compliance with obligations to protect land and limit consumption of non-urban land and impose criminal sanctions for non-compliance with these obligations.
11. raising awareness of the importance and value of more compact cities and developing a new culture of shared housing.
12. funding housing rehabilitation in small communities.
13. making centres more attractive by revitalising shops and retaining schools in rural areas.
VOTE: adopted with 99 %
4. production and labour
Promote more responsible production, develop repair, recycling and waste management facilities.
Draft 1: Increasing product life and reducing pollution.
2. enforce the law prohibiting planned obsolescence
3. possibility of repairing products sold in France (1), availability of original spare parts for a certain period (2). Establish local repair facilities and workshops and make after-sales service accessible (3).
4. make recycling of all plastic items mandatory from 2023, eliminate all single-use plastics from 2023 and increase recycling of other materials.
5. strengthen and enforce regulations on waste from economic activities, non-hazardous household waste (NHW) and non-hazardous waste (INW).
VOTE: adopted with 97.2%
Developing and supporting innovation in the transition
1. by 2025, any financial support for innovation must be part of a process that moves away from a carbon-based model.
VOTE: adopted with 98.6 %
Organise and support the financing of the transformation of companies' means of production in the context of the ecological transition.
1. regulate the use of regulated savings managed by the CDC and banks to finance green investments - develop the CDC's regulatory powers to support this rationale.
2. companies paying more than €10 million in dividends each year contribute 4% and companies with dividends of €10 million or less contribute 2% to the financing effort each year.
3. create financing arrangements by law or decree with a state loan intended to finance the transformation of enterprises.
VOTE: adopted with 95.1%
Accompanying the transformation of enterprises and the transformation of professions at the regional level
1. accompanying employees and enterprises through the transition phase
2. creating a new governance of job and skills change at national and regional level.
VOTE: adopted with 98.6
Add a carbon footprint to the balance sheet book of all institutions that are required to prepare a balance sheet.
1. annual reporting and extension to all organisations - Scope 3 emissions - penalty for non-achievement as % of turnover.
2. expand scope of reporting to include the financial sector - tighten reporting obligations to the financial sector
3. bonus for companies with positive performance - make public aid conditional on positive greenhouse gas performance
VOTE: adopted with 95.2
Strengthening environmental clauses in public procurement
1. strengthening environmental clauses in public procurement
VOTE: adopted with 98%
Protection of ecosystems and biodiversity
1. protection of ecosystem forms and biodiversity
VOTE: adopted with 94.4%
Better account for import-related greenhouse gas emissions in Europe's environmental pollution
1. CO2 adjustment at EU borders (based on carbon footprint) and consideration of redistribution issues to avoid burdening the most vulnerable households
VOTE: adopted with 97.7%
Production, storage and redistribution of energy for and by everyone
1. improving territorial/regional governance
2. participation of citizens, local businesses, local associations and local authorities in RES projects
3. development of self-sufficiency
VOTE: adopted with 96.5%
Keeping pace with the development of digital technology to reduce its impact on the environment
1. Keeping pace with the development of digital technology to reduce its environmental impact.
VOTE: adopted with 98 %
5. food sector
Move the entire food service sector towards more virtuous practices
1. 1. establish an investment premium for the equipment dof establishments, the training of staff and the implementation of awareness campaigns in order to achieve the objectives of the EGalim law.
2. proposal of a premium of 10 cents per meal for small organic and local canteens (less than 200 meals per day) to help them bear the additional costs for the first 3 years of their transition.
3. creation of a "Canteen Observatory" with the aim of exchanging good practices and monitoring the achievement of the objectives of the EGalim law.
4. establish a monitoring body to ensure the proper implementation of the EGalim law.
5. promote reflection on the revision of the Decree of 30 September 2011 on the nutritional quality of meals served in school canteens.
6. move to a daily vegetarian choice in self-service restaurants from 2022 and encourage single-menu restaurants to develop vegetarian menus.
7. extend all provisions of the EGalim Act to private mass catering from 2025.
8. expand the list of products eligible for the 50% threshold set in the law to include farmers in transition to organic farming and products with low environmental costs.
9. help in structuring the sectors so that they can recognise products with quality labels.
VOTE: adopted with 93 %
Making trilateral negotiations more transparent and fairer for farmers
1. ensure the presence of the DGCCRF (Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Anti-Fraud) in the negotiations, make the method compulsory for all sectors and organise regular meetings at interprofessional level, obliging food companies and central purchasing bodies to be transparent.
VOTE: adopted with 98 %
Developing short supply chains (local trade)
1. use the leverage of public procurement to promote products from short, local and environmentally friendly cycles in the form of a "purchasing guide" sent to public procurers.
VOTE: Adopted with 99%
Continue efforts to reduce food waste in the catering industry and at the individual level.
1. continue efforts in mass catering.
VOTE: adopted with 97 %
Develop organic farming practices
1. achieve 50% of organic farms in total agriculture by 2040
2. inclusion in the law and the NSP: development of organic farming (maintenance of subsidies for conversion, reintroduction of subsidies for the maintenance of organic farming, payment by the state of the costs of the annual certification of the label)
3. nitrogen fertilisers: increase the general tax on polluting activities (TGAP)
4. reduction of pesticide use with a ban on CMR products (carcinogenic, mutagenic, retroproductive), reduction of pesticide use by 50% by 2025 and a ban on the most polluting pesticides by 2035.
5. inclusion in the law and the NHP: Help to structure the plant sector (increased autonomy for the French animal population, 100% autonomy for human nutrition with plant proteins, increased crop diversification in the CAP, implementation of the national plan for plant proteins).
6. inclusion in the law and the NSP: assistance for the conservation of permanent grassland (avoidance of bare land as far as possible by introducing compulsory plant cover, remuneration of farmers for the services they provide through their activity for carbon storage).
7. inclusion in the law and the NHP: Prohibition of funding for the establishment of new livestock farms that do not comply with organic farming conditions and low greenhouse gas emissions, support for farmers to restructure their livestock to improve production quality.
VOTE: adopted with 98 %
Reform of agricultural education and training
1. reform agricultural education and training: Integrate the teaching of organic farming into the compulsory core curriculum, introduce internships on farms using organic farming methods, open up further education on organic farming practices to all farmers, train technical advisors in organic farming practices.
VOTE: adopted with 99 %
Maintain France's ambitious position in the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) negotiations.
1. raising the requirements for greening conditions
2. transforming the allocation of aid per hectare into aid for agricultural assets
VOTE: adopted with 97%
The CAP as a lever for change at national level
1. establishment of a mechanism to monitor and evaluate the achievement of the climate performance of the National Strategic Plan (NSP)
2. compatibility of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) with the National Low Carbon Strategy (SNBC), the National Biodiversity Strategy (SNB), the National Plan for Health and the Environment (PNSE), the National Strategy to Combat Imported Deforestation (SNDI)
3. inclusion of all provisions on agroecology development in the National Strategic Plan (NSP).
VOTE: adopted with 99%
Promote the development of low-emission fisheries
1. improve knowledge of fish stocks/displacement competition to better define quotas and prevent overfishing
2. continue efforts to limit fishing in sensitive areas and for sensitive stocks and strengthen controls on the ban on deep-sea fishing
3. develop rational and environmentally friendly aquaculture systems to avoid fishing in natural environments.
4. protect the capacity of the oceans to store carbon, including through the protection of cetaceans and marine wildlife.
5. reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fishing, shipping and port activities by further modernising the shipping fleet towards green propulsion systems.
VOTE: adopted with 99 %
Reflect on a model of trade policy for the future to promote healthy food and low greenhouse gas emissions agriculture in France.
1. renegotiating the CETA agreement (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) at European level to include the climate targets of the Paris Agreement
2. call on the French government to defend a reform of European trade policy: Include the precautionary principle in trade agreements, set binding targets for compliance with Paris Agreement commitments, abolish private arbitration, ensure transparency and democratic control of negotiations.
3. call on the French government to defend its positions in the World Trade Organisation (WTO): Take into account the Paris Agreement in trade negotiations, introduce sanctions for recalcitrant states, include environmental clauses in trade agreement negotiations.
VOTE: adopted with 91 %
Better information for consumers
1. better information for consumers through increased communication around the National Programme for Healthy Nutrition (PNNS) and the transformation of the PNNS into a National Programme for Health and Climate (PNNSC)
2. prohibiting the advertising of products that are outlawed by the PNNS
3. designing a new national food solidarity scheme to enable low-income households to access sustainable food.
VOTE: adopted with 99%
Regulate the production, import and use of processing aids and food additives.
1. informing consumers about the level of processing of products, in particular through mandatory labelling and the introduction of an ethical charter for the agri-food industry, providing information on technical aids (colourings,...) and food additives and assessing them in terms of greenhouse gases. Provide rapid and mandatory information on food accidents.
2. prohibiting the import of products consisting of technical adjuvants banned by the European Union.
3. phasing out the use of technical adjuvants and food additives within five years.
4. taxation of highly processed products with large carbon footprints and low nutritional content.
5. establishment of food vouchers for the poorest to use in AMAPs (Association for the Maintenance of Peasant Agriculture) or for organic products.
VOTE: adopted with 100%
Reform of the functioning of food labels
1. reform the functioning of food labels by abolishing private labels and introducing a label for products from organic farming.
VOTE: adopted with 98 %
Legislation on the crime of ecocide
1. adopt legislation punishing the crime of ecocide within the nine planetary boundaries, including the duty of vigilance and the crime of negligence, the implementation of which is guaranteed by the High Authority for Planetary Boundaries.
VOTE: adopted with 99%
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