A bill of 104 articles containing concrete measures for achieving the three objectives was presented to the French Council of Ministers on 7 January.
Entitled 'National engagement for the environment,' the bill follows a wide national consultation on environmental issues (Grenelle de l'environnement) in 2007 and provides, according to French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, a "legal toolbox" for its implementation.
The proposed measures focus on legal changes to:
- Improve energy efficiency of buildings and overall urban planning;
- favour more sustainable means of transport and to reduce transport's harmful effects;
- improve renewable energy planning to fight climate change, widen the use of energy savings certificates and frame the experimental development of CO2 storage;
- protect biodiversity by establishing the notion of "ecological continuity" of territories, create an eco-label for farms and fisheries products and improve protection of wetlands and overall water quality;
- improve environmental health through better management and reuse of waste and protection of citizens against noise, radioelectric and light pollution, and;
- achieve better governance through obliging big private and public entities to assess and report their greenhouse gas emissions.
If passed, the bill would impose energy efficiency standards on renovations of existing buildings as of 2012, allow individuals to install renewable energy microgeneration devices and severely limit the use of pesticides. It would define regional connections to renewable energy networks and would, in the long term, trigger mandatory CO2 labelling of products.
French green NGO France Nature Environment welcomed the bill, calling for it to be adopted quickly to provide a basis for economic recovery. But it believes the legal toolbox for prompting a true "green revival" remains "incomplete". The association's president, Sébastien Genest, said the green governance of companies needs further examination, particularly regarding CO2 reporting, the responsibility of parent companies and "greenwashing".
