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Chapter 8. Ecocide in the European sphere and can be reached by train in less than 2 hours 30 minutes) would be abolished. Since 2024, the most polluting vehicles have been restricted in cities, guadrupling the number of low-emission zones. From the middle of the decade, no energy-intensive houses will be allowed to be rented, and from 2040, no heavy goods vehicles using fossil fuels, diesel or petrol will be allowed on the road.>* The proposal was approved in July 2021 but has attracted significant protest from environmental organisations, who say the plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by around 40 per cent from 1990 levels is insufficient. While the French legislation may indeed be open to criticism in the area of climate action, its criminal law implications are certainly considered extremely severe in the current European, indeed global, context.” The Climate and Resilience Bill was adopted as Law 2021-1104 of 22 August 2021 “on combating climate change and strengthening resilience to its effects endangering the environment.” The new legislation included new offences to the French criminal law, such as a general offence of polluting the environment and the offence of ecocide for the most serious environmental crimes. Based on the new regulation, “ifa party is found to have exposed the environment to risk of sustained degradation of fauna, flora or water by violating an obligation of safety or a duty of care, the offence is punishable by a prison sentence of up to three years and a fine of up to €250,000.”*" In Article 231-3, the new law introduced ecocide as a criminal offence punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. In Article 296 of the Climate and Resilience Bill, ecocide is also recognised as an international crime: “Within one year of the promulgation of this law, the Government will submit a report to Parliament on its efforts to ensure that ecocide is recognised as a crime that can be tried by international criminal courts? 59 L'Assemblée nationale adopte le projet de loi Climat et résilience 04/05/2021 Available at: https://www.gouvernement.fr/l-assemblee-nationale-adopte-leprojet-de-loi-climat-et-resilience. Euronews: France’s new climate law has just been approved. So why are activists so unimpressed? Available at: https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/07/20/france-snew-climate-law-has-just-been-approved-so-why-are-activists-so-unimpressed. Brihi, Sélim — Dufourg, Pauline: Environmental criminal law in the French legal framework. 27 June 2022. Available at: https://www.ibanet.org/environmentalcriminal-law-in-the-French-legal-framework#_edn2. Loi no 2021-1104 du 22 août 2021 portant lutte contre le dérèglement climatique et renforcement de la résilience face à ses effets (1) Article 296: “Dans un délai d'un an à compter de la promulgation de la présente loi, le Gouvernement remet au Parlement un rapport sur son action en faveur de la reconnaissance de l'écocide comme un crime pouvant être jugé par des juridictions pénales internationales” 540 541 542 173
