Macron plans referendum to add climate clause to French constitution

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday he plans to call a referendum on changing the constitution to include a commitment to fight against climate change and for the protection of the environment.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the Climate Ambition Summit 2020 video conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Saturday Dec.12, 2020. World leaders are staging a virtual gathering Saturday to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Paris climate accord, which set a goal for keeping global temperatures from rising above levels that could have devastating consequences for mankind. (Yoan Valat, Pool via AP) AP - Yoan Valat

Speaking to members of a Citizen's Convention on Climate, Macron said that the referendum would propose adding a clause to the first article of the constitution which lays out the foundational principles of the republic.

"Constitutionally it (the referendum proposal) must first go to the National Assembly and then the Senate and be voted in identical terms," Macron said. 

The Citizen's Convention is composed of 150 randomly picked members of the public who were tasked by Macron's centrist government with proposing ways in which France could cut its emissions.

They made a series of practical proposals from reducing speed limits to improving home insulation, but changing the constitution to include the climate commitment and making destroying nature a crime -- so-called "ecocide" -- topped their list of ideas in June.

Inscrire la lutte pour le climat dans la Constitution ? Oui. Et nous le soumettrons au référendum. pic.twitter.com/xoHoTvpffQ

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 14, 2020

Yellow Vest origins 

Macron formed the council in response to demands for greater "direct democracy" in the wave of the Yellow Vest anti-government protests that rocked the country in 2018 and 2019.

The unexpectedly fierce rebellion was sparked by a planned fuel tax hike aimed at funding the climate-change fight, which critics said unfairly targeted people who have no choice but to rely on their cars.

The last referendum in France was in 2005 when voters were asked to back the creation of a European constitution.

They rejected the proposal in a humiliating defeat for then-president Jacques Chirac.

Macron has sought to sustain momentum internationally to cut carbon emissions as laid out in the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord, which was hit by the US withdrawal under President Donald Trump.