Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Paris and other cities on Sunday to demand the French government deliver much more far-reaching action on climate than exhibited in a new piece of legislation now under consideration in the nation’s parliament.
According to Reuters, “French lawmakers are due to start examining a bill on climate change on Monday (March 29) but critics say the bill is not ambitious enough to limit the country’s carbon emissions and reach a goal set at the Paris Agreement to limit the rise of global temperatures.”
While proponents of the draft bill in France—titled “Climate and Resilience”—claim it’s designed to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by end of this decade, critics of the legislation say the most far-reaching proposals were left out and that President Emmanuel Macron has betrayed his promise for action bold enough to address the planetary crisis. Those marching and supporters online used the phrase Vraie Loi Climat (or “True Climate Law”) and the #VraeiLoiClimat hashtag to support the day’s action.
“We are all more and more aware that we really need to act quickly,” one demonstrator, Antonin Andre, told CGTN News. “Macron is going backwards—he’s performing a moonwalk, he’s an artist who pretends to go forward but in fact he’s only going backwards. Nothing he suggests goes towards a common interest.”
“Altogether,” according to CGTN, “an estimated 110,000 protesters filled French cities on Sunday, including between 4,000 and 10,000 protesters in Lyon and an additional 55,000 in Paris, despite COVID-19 restrictions.”
Tom Baquerre, co-president of Combat Monsanto, one of the organizations joining the demonstration, said, “All the scientists and groups say that the bill which the government is proposing is falling short.”