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CLIMATE CRISIS

Top court orders French govt to take more climate steps

France's top administrative court on Wednesday ordered the government for a second time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within a year, in a case brought by a town threatened by rising sea levels.

Published: 10 May 2023 17:21 CEST
Top court orders French govt to take more climate steps
The town of Dunkirk argued that it faces increased risks of flooding because of the climate crisis. Photo by DENIS CHARLET / AFP

“The State Council today orders the government to take new measures by June 30th, 2024 and to send an interim report laying out these measures and their effectiveness by December 31st,” the judges said.

The mayor of Grande-Synthe, a suburb of Dunkirk in northern France, brought the case for “inaction on climate” in 2019, saying that the coastal town was in danger of being submerged.

Judges first ordered the government in 2021 to reduce greenhouse emissions by 40 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2030 – in line with the Paris Agreement.

But an official charged with evaluating the changes told them last month that he did not believe ministers had done enough.

“Additional measures have indeed been taken and reflect the government’s will to execute the (court) decision,” judges said Wednesday.

Nevertheless, “it is still not guaranteed with sufficient credibility that the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions reduction can effectively be kept up,” they added.

The city of Paris as well as campaign groups like Greenpeace and Oxfam are also parties to the case.

Although the court has required new measures of the government, judges on Wednesday stopped short of ordering financial penalties should the state fail to comply.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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