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France’s Citizens’ climate body explained
The Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat is made up of 150 volunteers randomly selected from the public to brainstorm ideas to tackle climate change
Created by President Emmanuel Macron in 2019, France’s Citizens’ Convention for the Climate brought together 150 randomly selected members of the public to develop proposals on tackling climate change.
The group called for an amendment to Article 1 of the French Constitution to guarantee the preservation of biodiversity and the environment and action against climate change.
It also proposed other measures to tackle climate change as part of the so-called loi climat, or Climate and Resilience law.
The Citizens’ Convention for the Climate was created by the president in 2019
The convention was an unprecedented attempt to give members of the public the chance to put forward and discuss proposals that could eventually become law.
Mr Macron introduced it following criticism in the wake of the gilets jaunes movement that political leaders were not taking public concerns into account.
Market research company Harris Interactive contacted around 255,000 people over the course of a month. From those willing to take part, 150 were chosen to form a panel representing the population according to gender, age, level of education, socio-professional category, living environment and geographical location.
The group held its first meeting in October 2019 and went on to take part in seven three-day sessions.
Its mission was to develop ideas for achieving a reduction of at least 40% in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, compared with 1990 levels, “in a spirit of social justice”.
The government said it would respond publicly to the proposals and publish a provisional timetable for their implementation.
By June 2020, the convention had produced 150 proposals.
President Macron promised to consider 146 of them “without any filtration”. He later clarified that he would examine each proposal in depth, while final decisions on changes to the law would remain with the government and Parliament.
The proposals covered five areas: housing, food, transport, shopping, and manufacturing and work.
Ideas included encouraging people to eat less meat by introducing a daily vegetarian option in all self-service canteens; requiring products sold in France to come with an offer of repair services; ending the use of oil-fired heating in new and renovated buildings after 2030; reducing the motorway speed limit to 110kph; and introducing carbon-score labelling for products and services.
The government subsequently presented its Climate and Resilience bill, which incorporated some of the convention's proposals. Participants expressed disappointment with the extent to which their ideas had been taken up.
Their frustration increased after Mr Macron told online media outlet Brut: “I have 150 citizens and I respect them but that does not mean that what they propose has to be taken as gospel.”
Macron criticised for his 'hollow intervention'
Mr Macron later met with the group and said he would support its proposal for a referendum on including climate protection in the Constitution, subject to approval by Parliament.
He said: “Putting these measures into the Constitution is an acknowledgement that there is a climate emergency.”
Greenpeace France criticised his comments at the time, describing them as a “hollow intervention” and accusing him of remaining “deaf” to the citizens’ arguments.
Constitutional law professor Jean-Philippe Derosier of Lille University also questioned whether the referendum would go ahead, pointing to the lack of a pro-Macron majority in the Senate.
He argued that the proposal was a political manoeuvre because France already had an Environment Charter incorporated into its Constitution.
Mr Macron also said he would support other proposals, including vouchers for low-income households to help them buy organic and locally produced food.
He was less certain about a proposal requiring households to carry out energy-efficient renovations, saying discussions were still ongoing.
Not all of the convention's proposals became law, and some were changed from their original form. However, the convention established a model for involving randomly selected citizens in discussions about public policy.
In its final report, the convention called for more citizen conventions on major issues affecting French society, saying citizen involvement in political decisions should be viewed as “a democratic strength”.
