Evaluating laws in line with ambitions - Response to a government referral

With only 3 pc of articles of law currently assessed from the climate point of view, France is not piloting its strategy to achieve carbon neutrality. This is the finding of this recent report of the High Council for the climate (HCC), which responds to a Government's referral, wishing that the High Council for the Climate determine a preliminary framework of the methods of evaluation of laws and bills with regard to the climate. In this report, the High Council for the Climate underlines that the assessments must apply to all the laws likely to influence greenhouse gas emissions or the carbon neutral objective for France in 2050. The government's commitment to assess three of its major policy laws in this direction is a step in the right direction, but it must be extended. These legislative advances should be reviewed annually at the highest level of the State during an Ecological Defense Council. Significant progress can be made on the assessment of climate laws. The High Council bases its recommendations on procedures recommended at the international level or implemented in other countries. Recalling the expertise and capacities available in France, it proposes an evaluation framework making it possible to distinguish, at the end of a public consultation, the laws having a potential impact on greenhouse gas emissions and having to be evaluated. It recommends highlighting the indicators of the national low-carbon strategy (SNBC) in the evaluation process. The High Council proposes eight recommendations detailed in the report