A crime called "ecocide": how Macron in France, and the Danish Parliament, are willing to use laws (and referenda) to hit climate targets
Young Danish climate protestors (BBC Future Planet)
A few weeks ago, when writing on how climate assemblies were picking up as a powerful force for changing the minds of laws and administrators, we noted that President Macron seemed to concede the majority demand from his own Climate Convention: that the crime of ecocide should become real in France.
As The Connexion puts it:
President Macron said he would support the creation of a crime of ecocide in discussions with international organisations and that he is studying the possibility of introducing it into French law. Ecocide, one of the ideas backed by the Citizens’s Convention, would refer to causing serious damage to the environment and would mainly relate to actions by companies.
Backed up by Stop Ecocide, quoting Macron:
Macron: “We'll study, with you and legal experts, how this principle can be incorporated into French law."
Moreover he specifically promised to champion, on behalf of France, the enshrining of ecocide crime in international law.
“As for ecocide, I think I was the first leader to use that term when the Amazon was burning," the head of state said. "So I share the ambition that you defend … the mother of all battles is international: to ensure that this term is enshrined in international law so that leaders … are accountable before the International Criminal Court.”
Let’s see how far this goes. Our translation from the Climate Convention’s own page on the ecocide law runs as follows:
The biosphere and our ecosystems function through the interaction of different phenomena. Human activity leads us to reach the limits of these phenomena, cycles and ecosystems.
This crossing can lead us to a "tipping point" characterized by a process of irreversible extinction of species and the generalization of climatic disasters harmful to humanity.
For example, when the biosphere is damaged, its erosion impacts the climate. Plant cover and soil no longer play their crucial role in direct climate regulation, in addition to carbon storage and recycling. Deforestation leads to the permanent local disappearance of clouds and rains. The loss of marine plankton stops the carbon pump that is the ocean.
Our ambition is to evolve our law so that the judiciary can take into account planetary limits. The introduction of new forms of liability, particularly criminal ones, will enable judges and public authorities to assess the dangerousness of industrial activity based on the threshold values set. The definition of planetary boundaries provides a repository for quantifying the climate impact of human activities.
The passage of a law that protects ecosystems effectively allows for the recognition of ecocide and the penalization of damage to ecosystems.
To achieve these objectives we propose to pass a law that protects ecosystems from degradation and destruction, by putting legal and financial responsibility on the perpetrators of depredations. This law would include:
The nine planetary boundaries as defined by MTES (climate change, erosion of biodiversity, disruption of biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus, changes in land use, ocean acidification, global water use, stratospheric ozone depletion, increased aerosols in the atmosphere, introduction of new features into the biosphere);
Penalization of ecocide crime;
The duty of vigilance;
The crime of recklessness.
The creation of a High Authority for Planetary Limits (HALP), in order to ensure the proper implementation of the law, declined in the High Regional Authority of Planetary Limits (HARLP).
In Denmark, as the BBC reports, they are also taking to legislation to “make climate change illegal” (translated report here - the official target is to reduce carbon emissions by 70%, by 2030). Their legislation, according to the BBC, avoids four pitfalls:
It will persist no matter the change of government. The agreement was signed off by 95% of the parties in the Danish Parliament — meaning it’s very unlikely anyone can form a working majority government without acceding to these plans. BBC: “This cross-party support also helps to provide the market certainty needed for companies to invest in low-carbon technologies. “If the markets are to react they need to be sure it’s not just a good idea that’s in fashion right now,” said Dan Jørgensen, Denmark’s Climate Minister. “They need to be sure it will last.”
The law is based on Denmark taking its fair share of the climate burden. BBC: “Countries with credible climate plans therefore need to make a genuine attempt to calculate their fair share. This is what Denmark has done, finding that it should reduce emissions 70% by 2030, based on 1990 levels. This legally binding science-based target is the backbone of its new law.
“So far Denmark has reached just a 35% drop in emissions, so it has its work cut out over the next 10 years, including immediate action to reduce emissions now and support to development the tools needed to achieve deeper emissions reductions towards the end of the 2020s.
“This means the new law is different in committing Denmark to stretching beyond its current capabilities. ‘With all the knowledge and technology we have today, no matter what we do, we cannot reduce [emissions by] 70% in 10 years,’ says Qvist-Sørensen. ‘Here they’ve set a target that means that we don’t have all the answers yet.’”
Denmark’s journey to net zero is credible. BBC: “the date of Denmark’s net zero target (by 2050) isn’t as ambitious as it could be. But its promise to achieve all emissions cuts within its own borders helps to give it credibility. “We say that if all countries just bought climate offsets or credits [Norway’s strategy], then we wouldn’t have the development that we need,” says Jørgensen. “We need technological advances. We need a system where rich countries can’t just buy their way out.”
Everyone is in this together. BBC: “As climate change moves up the political agenda, an all-hands-on-deck approach is increasingly being prioritised. New Zealand’s government, for instance, said last year that all its major decisions will now be made through a climate change lens.
“Denmark’s law likewise aims to ensure all policies support green sustainable development. It establishes a standing committee on ‘green transformation’ to screen the sustainability of all policies, says Jørgensen. ‘We see this as a transformation of the Danish society that’s so big that it’s not just my ministry, it’s all ministries, including the foreign affairs ministry,’ he adds. ‘They are also responsible for the global strategy that needs to be put forward every year.’
“Denmark is also making efforts to include businesses and the public in its plans. A ‘public climate council’ of 99 people will be invited to discuss potential climate plans. Thirteen ‘climate partnerships’, each led by a different sector, were tasked with coming up with solutions to reduce emissions in their industry. ‘So actually, [the government] have put the private sector to the test, but are also saying on the other hand that the private sector really wants to be put to the test,’ says Birgitte Qvist-Sørensen, general secretary of DanChurchAid.”