France

Large industry facility polluting

French court rules against oil giant TotalEnergies in landmark greenwashing case

By / / Good News For Humankind

A landmark French court ruling has set a global precedent against corporate greenwashing. The court found that TotalEnergies misled consumers with claims about its climate commitment while still expanding fossil fuel production. This victory for consumer advocacy groups, such as Friends of the Earth France, is crucial. It forces corporations to align their marketing with verifiable action, significantly raising the legal and financial stakes for climate deception worldwide.

Man holding Palestinian flag

France, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and Monaco formally recognize Palestinian statehood

By / / Good News For Humankind

In a landmark diplomatic moment, France, Belgium, and a coalition of other European nations have formally recognized a Palestinian state. The coordinated effort, announced at the United Nations General Assembly, is a powerful affirmation of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. This is a significant step toward a two-state solution, demonstrating a growing international consensus that a stable peace in the Middle East requires a sovereign Palestine existing alongside Israel.

Paris skyline at sunset

Paris residents vote to make 500 more streets pedestrian

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Parisians voted to pedestrianize a further 500 of the city’s streets, giving fresh momentum to efforts by the French capital’s left-leaning town hall to curb car usage and improve air quality. The referendum will eliminate 10,000 more parking spots in Paris, adding to the 10,000 removed since 2020. The 500 additional streets to be pedestrianized will bring the total number of these so-called “green lungs” to nearly 700, just over one-tenth of the capital’s streets.

Illustration of the concept of nuclear fusion

France runs fusion reactor for record 22 minutes

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Achieving the dream of commercial fusion power is the Holy Grail of engineering and has been for 80 years. With a single gram of hydrogen isotopes yielding the energy equivalent of 11 tonnes of coal, a practical fusion reactor would hold the promise of unlimited, clean energy for humanity until the end of time. France has upped the ante in the quest for fusion power by maintaining a plasma reaction for over 22 minutes – 25% longer than the previous record set by China in January 2025.

Dominique Pelicot sentenced to 20 years in prison in historic French rape trial

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A French judge has found the former husband of Gisèle Pelicot, who admitted to drugging and raping her repeatedly over the course of almost a decade and inviting dozens of other men to assault her as well, guilty of aggravated rape. Forty-nine men whom Dominique Pelicot brought into his home to assault his wife were also convicted as part of the same trial. Over the course of the trial, Gisèle Pelicot was praised for her courage and became a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France and around the world.

Eiffel Tower in Paris City

Paris to replace 60,000 parking spaces with trees 

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Paris aims to replace 60,000 parking spaces across the city with trees by the end of this decade, according to its newly released climate plan. The plan, which must still be approved by the Council of Paris, lays out steps to help the city prepare for more extreme heat. The goal of ripping up parking spaces is part of a larger aim to create more than 700 acres of green space by 2030. The plan also calls for setting up more cooling centers, creating more car-free zones, and installing reflective roofs on 1,000 public buildings.

France to trial ban on mobile phones at school for children under 15

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France is to trial a ban on mobile phones at school for pupils up to the age of 15, seeking to give children a “digital pause” that, if judged successful, could be rolled out nationwide from January. Just under 200 secondary schools will take part in the experiment that will require youngsters to hand over phones on arrival at reception. It takes the prohibition on the devices further than a 2018 law that banned pupils at primary and secondary schools from using their phones on the premises but allowed them to keep possession of them.

New Caledonia’s endangered cagou now thriving after conservation push

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The flightless bird is considered endangered and experts estimate there are about 2,000 in New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific. A “massacre” by predators in 2017 killed about three-quarters of the population in the area. A similar incident three years later further hurt its numbers. But efforts to preserve and grow the population are paying off. A series of steps to protect the birds – including managing threats and tracking behavior – have seen their numbers triple since 2017.

Karla Sofia Gascon

Karla Sofía Gascón becomes the first trans woman to win award for Best Actress at Cannes

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For the first time in its 77-year history, the Cannes Film Festival’s jury bestowed the award for Best Actress on an out transgender woman. Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón received the award at Saturday night’s gala awards ceremony alongside Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, and Selena Gomez, her co-stars in French film-maker Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez.

Coal pollution

G7 agree to close all coal-fired generating stations by 2035

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Energy ministers from the G7 countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union — agreed at a meeting in Turin, Italy, to close all coal-fired generating stations in their countries by 2035 if not sooner. Putting an end date on coal — the most polluting of all fossil fuels — has been highly controversial at international climate talks. Until this point, Japan, which derived 32% of its electricity from coal in 2023 according to the climate advocate Ember, has blocked progress on the issue at past G7 meetings.