France is likely to make damaging the environment a criminal offence after President Emmanuel Macron assured the same earlier in June this year. By Tanvi Jain
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French President Emmanuel Macron after meeting with at least 150 randomly selected members of the citizen’s assembly on climate — the Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat (CCC) — in Paris, regarding one of their highly supported proposals to make ecocide a crime, assured of working towards incorporating the same in the French Law.
“We’ll study, with you and legal experts, how this principle can be incorporated into French law. As for ecocide, I think I was the first leader to use that term when the Amazon was burning. 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,” ecologist.org had quoted Macron as saying in response to the proposal presented to him earlier in June.
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“Making ECOCIDE a crime will change the ground rules, closing the door to the destructive practices that have brought us to climate and ecological emergency… and paving the way for healthier, safer ways of operating. It’s the bridge to a world where nature and humanity are both protected and can begin to recover — together,” Environmental Activist Jojo Mehta, co-founder of Stop Ecocide International — a campaign founded by her along with UK Lawyer late Polly Higgins in 2017, working towards establishing ecocide as an international crime, had added.
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Moreover, last month, the country’s Ecology Minister Barbara Pompili had announced a ban on outdoor terrace heaters used by cafes and restaurants in order to reduce carbon emission and energy consumption.
Furthermore, as per media reports, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai had in July joined climate change activist Greta Thunberg and 150 other celebrities and scientists, to raise demand for making ecocide a criminal offence. Thunberg who recently won the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, even donated one million euros to support environmental causes.
Related: Here’s What France Is Doing To Revive Its Tourism Sector
