Climate Issues in France: The Metropolis Against the State?

Faced with melting glaciers, retreating coastlines, rising global sea levels, eroding biodiversity and deteriorating air quality, citizens around the world are calling for increasingly significant action (i.e., marches for the climate, boycotts, battles of opinion, etc.) (Wallace-Wells 2019). It has reached the point that states, notably in France, are being persecuted by activists for “climate inaction”. This movement was first led by NGOs, and was gradually integrated into international arenas where climate is negotiated. As Lydie Laigle argues, there is a shift from climate justice to environmental justice, which accounts for the convergences between social and environmental inequality. At the local level, movements have been triggered to fight futile, senseless projects that usurp resources and spoil ecosystems (Laigle 2019). These actors, made of associations and citizens, unite in cities to raise public awareness of socio-environmental injustices, and influence the actions taken by decision-makers.