The first successful claim against the French State for failure to honour its obligation to combat global warming – Paris administrative court’s judgment of 3 February 2021 on climate change: The case of the century, or is it?

On 3 February 2021, the administrative court of Paris delivered its first judgment in a very publicised climate litigation case nicknamed the case of the century by the applicant associations. While this judgment is novel in so far as the court recognised for the first time the existence of an ecological damage linked to climate change and found the French State liable for failing to honour its obligations to combat global warming, it is nonetheless also interesting in that it only established partially the liability of the State and did not award (for the time being) compensation for the ecological damage suffered by the applicants. It certainly offers however new lines of reflection and contributes to developing the juridical debate around climate justice