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Thousands demonstrate in France for more ambitious climate policies

DPA WORLD
Published March 28,2021
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Thousands of people demonstrated in favour of more determined climate policies in France on Sunday.

According to the Interior Ministry, 44,000 people took to the streets, with 12,000 demonstrating in Paris alone.

Organizers had registered around 190 rallies across the country and said 110,000 people attended them, according to news agency AFP.

Protesters criticized the government for not being ambitious enough in the fight against climate change and called for "real climate legislation."

On Monday, the French parliament is to meet to discuss a planned climate law, which the government proposed in early February.

The piece of legislation includes bans on some short-distance flights in cases where there are equivalent train routes that take less than two and a half hours.

The law is also to provide the legal footing for banning heated outside terraces, for instance in restaurants, providing better insulation of buildings and introducing limits on polluting cars in cities.

There has however been much criticism of the law, for instance experts have bemoaned the fact that the measures are to be implemented only selectively and the planned time frame does not allow for the necessary decrease in carbon emissions.

Organizations also criticized the fact that incentives were being introduced that warranted state interference.

A citizen's initiative was also disappointed with the measures.