France will make serious intentional damage to the environment punishable by up to 10 years in prison as part of planned "eco-cide" law, government ministers said in remarks published Sunday.

The law was one recommendation from a Citizens' Convention for the Climate, a group created by the government a year ago, bringing together 150 people from the French population to discuss the environment.

An "eco-cide" offence would be sanctioned by up to 4.5 million euros ($5.3 million) in fines or up to 10 years in prison in cases of "intentional violation" of environmental laws, Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti and Ecological Transition Minister Barbara Pompili told the JDD weekly.

"We are going to create a general pollution offence," Dupont-Moretti said. "Punishment will be staggered according to a perpetrator's intentions."

The aim was to fine violators of environmental laws "up to 10 times the profit they would have generated by throwing waste into the river", he said.

The French constitution did not allow the qualification of such actions as "crimes", just offences, Dupont-Moretti said.

France will also add an offence called "endangering the environment" to its statute books, Pompili said, under which potential offenders could be punished even before committing acts of illegal pollution.

Environmental expertise within the French judiciary will be beefed up to allow courts to improve their handling of pollution cases and civil claims, including by creating special environmental jurisdictions, Dupont-Moretti said.

The citizens' convention has submitted 149 proposals to cut greenhouse gas emissions to President Emmanuel Macron, who said he would convert 146 of them into government policy.

adm-abd/jh/pma

Twitter

Related Links
Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

NASA model reveals how much COVID-related pollution levels deviated from the norm
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 18, 2020
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, space- and ground-based observations have shown that Earth's atmosphere has seen significant reductions in some air pollutants. However, scientists wanted to know how much of that decline can be attributed to changes in human activity during pandemic-related shutdowns, versus how much would have occurred in a pandemic-free 2020. Using computer models to generate a COVID-free 2020 for comparison, NASA researchers found that since February, pandemic restrictions ha ... read more