The French State condemned for not taking enough action against air pollution.
The Council of State has decided to activate the payment of a penalty payment of 10 million euros for the first half of 2021. The decisions taken "will not improve the situation as quickly as possible. short possible ”, justifies the highest administrative body in a decision published on Wednesday.
"The implementation of some of them remains uncertain and their effects have not been evaluated", continues the Council of State.
It was a little over four years ago, on July 12, 2017, that the Council of State ordered France to "implement plans to reduce the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the shortest possible time. 'nitrogen and fine particles in 13 areas of France'.
The objective set then was quite simply to comply with the requirements set by the European directive on air quality.
⚖ Air pollution: the Council of State condemns the State to pay 10 million euros ⤵
➡ https://t.co/SqvrLnuCf3 pic.twitter.com/v6kBQYJ42b
- Council of State (@Conseil_Etat) August 4, 2021
Problem: three years later, on July 10, 2020, the limit values set at European level were still not respected in eight of these zones.
The Council of State had therefore granted a period of six months to France to be in the nails and respect the maximum concentration rates.
If the objective was not reached, France would then be exposed to the payment of a penalty payment of 10 million euros per semester.
This is the lever activated by the court on July 12, in its decision made public today.
"The thresholds are always exceeded"
"The Council of State notes that, since its decision of July 2020, the new data transmitted show that the limit thresholds are still exceeded in several areas and that additional actions are therefore still necessary", we read in a press release published this Wednesday. The Council of State notes in particular that the provisional data show that for the year 2020, the rates remain above the limits set in Paris and Lyon. These concentrations would also be only very slightly lower than the European limits in three zones, "even though several sources of pollution, in particular road traffic, have been greatly reduced with the measures taken to deal with the health crisis".
Invited to defend its action in the area of air quality, the government had notably put forward the launch of a procedure for evaluating public policies in the area of air quality, the establishment of new zones to low emission (ZFE), encouragement for the conversion of the national vehicle fleet to less polluting vehicles or even the progressive ban on gas or fuel oil boilers ... Initiatives deemed insufficient by the Council of State, which would have liked the France is going further, in particular by implementing a new air protection plan, even if the trend is indeed to improve the situation in several “overshooting” regions.
These 10 million euros will be donated to several organizations engaged in the fight against air pollution. The Friends of the Earth association, at the initiative of the action brought before the Council of State, will thus receive 330,000 euros. The Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe) will receive 3.3 million euros, against 2.5 million for the Center for Studies and Expertise on Risks, the environment, mobility and planning, two million for the National Agency for Health, Food, Environment and Occupational Safety (Anses) and one million euros for the National Institute of the Environment industry and risks (Ineris). Air Parif and its equivalents in Occitanie, Auvergne Rhône-Alpes and in the South will receive between 200,000 and 350,000 euros.
