Climate litigation in France, a reflection of trends in environmental litigation

Abstract

While climate litigation has developed somewhat in recent years and has received much attention from both media and legal scholars, we examine it in the French context to determine its degree of originality compared to environmental litigation as a whole. On the one hand, the main successes of climate litigation can be explained by two important trends in environmental litigation. It builds on the strength of the European legal system and takes advantage of the progress made in legal redress for ecological damage. However, on the other hand, it faces the same limitations as environmental litigation. It is difficult to impose positive obligations on the legislator and environmental objectives are poorly integrated. We conclude that climate litigation reflects the major trends in contemporary environmental litigation. Its real originality lies rather in the establishment of a “trajectory review” by the judge in the Grande-Synthe case.