Grande-Synthe v. France
A claim by a coastal town in northern France before the Council of State, which in 2021 ordered the government to take measures to cut emissions by 40% by 2030.
A low-lying town exposed to coastal flooding bears directly the consequences of a national emissions path that drifts, with no means of acting on it. Grande-Synthe asked the administrative court to compel the state to meet its own statutory targets. The Council of State held that these targets are binding, then, finding that the path was not being followed, ordered the government to take additional measures within a set period. The case illustrates how a target written into law becomes enforceable by a local authority exposed to physical risk. It differs from the Affaire du siècle, which sought redress for ecological damage.
In a first decision of November 19, 2020, the Council of State asked the government to justify its trajectory; in the decision of July 1, 2021, it ordered it to take before March 31, 2022 all useful measures to reach the target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40% in 2030 against 1990.
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