NOTRE AFFAIRE À TOUS AND OTHERS V. FRANCE

A case study detailing the legal action brought by four NGOs against the French government for failing to implement sufficient measures to address climate change, resulting in a court order for immediate corrective action.

• Four NGOs—Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme, Greenpeace France, Notre Affaire à Tous, and Oxfam France—sued the French government, alleging that its failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase renewable energy, and limit energy consumption violated its statutory duty to act.
• In February 2021, the Administrative Court of Paris ruled that France's inaction caused ecological damage from climate change and awarded the plaintiffs a symbolic sum of 1 euro for moral prejudice.
• In October 2021, the Administrative Court of Paris ordered the French state to take immediate and concrete actions by December 31, 2022, to comply with emission reduction commitments and repair damage from previous inaction. This included a requirement to subtract emissions that exceeded legislative commitments and add those reductions to the planned reductions for 2021 and 2022.
• The court's decision was based on the UNFCCC principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, recognizing that countries in the global north with higher historic and current emissions have a greater responsibility for redress.
• The ruling is distinguished from the Urgenda case in the Netherlands by granting applicants the right to seek compensation in kind for ecological damage resulting from France's failure to meet its own greenhouse gas reduction targets.

APA

Natural Justice (2021). NOTRE AFFAIRE À TOUS AND OTHERS V. FRANCE. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Notre-Affaire-a-Tous-and-Others-v.-France.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. NOTRE AFFAIRE À TOUS AND OTHERS V. FRANCE. 2021. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Notre-Affaire-a-Tous-and-Others-v.-France.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=NOTRE AFFAIRE À TOUS AND OTHERS V. FRANCE |date=December 2021 |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Notre-Affaire-a-Tous-and-Others-v.-France.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljustice2021notre, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{NOTRE AFFAIRE À TOUS AND OTHERS V. FRANCE}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, year = {2021}, month = dec, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Notre-Affaire-a-Tous-and-Others-v.-France.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }