France's moves to limit climate damage came late but were sufficient, a French court ruled on Friday, in a blow to attempts by environmental campaigners to impose a 1.1 billion-euro penalty on the state for alleged failings, reports FRANCE 24.
The ruling comes two years after a landmark legal order on France to honour its climate change commitments and take all necessary measures to repair ecological damage and stop further carbon emissions rises by end-December 2022 at the latest.
Campaign groups including Greenpeace and Oxfam lodged a motion to impose a penalty on the state, alleging President Emmanuel Macron's government had not taken sufficient action to comply with the initial court order to lower emissions.
"The Court first found that the State, in compliance with the injunction issued against it, had adopted or implemented measures capable of remedying the damage in question", the Paris administrative court said in its ruling issued on Friday.
Although data from 2021 and 2022 showed some shortcomings, these did not justify a penalty because excess emissions were offset by a sharp drop in the first quarter of 2023, it added.