France – Greening the European economy: responses and initiatives by Member States and social partners
Environmental issues are becoming topics that governments, employer organisations and trade unions pay increasing attention to. Initiatives are above all of an individual nature, along with a process of consultations that was launched in 2007 which encourages collective actions and legal measures in order to increase responsibility in governance.
Mapping Member State responses, initiatives and tools
Please describe the main actions and policy strategies of your country in the following areas:
1) In the context of the current global recession, has an economic recovery program or strategy been launched by the national government in the last 12 months? If so, what coverage, attention, actions are envisaged with a view to greening the national economy, with a focus on employment, as a way of emerging from the present downturn? If there is a wide range of issues, please focus on the main issues.
On 2 February 2009 - just a few days after the united cross-industry demonstration called by the unions on 29 January 2009 to win measures benefiting workers, jobseekers and pensioners, who are all victims of the economic and financial crises (FR0902029I)- the government disclosed its national plan for economic recovery.
Prime Minister François Fillon presented the recovery plan along with the new minister responsible for implementing it, Patrick Devedjan, during a meeting of the Interministerial Committee for Territorial Planning and Monitoring Competitiveness (Comité interministériel d’aménagement de compétitivité des territories, CIACT) (FR0512103F). According to the prime minister, the plan 'involving more than € 26 billion, i.e. 1.3% of GDP, resolutely prioritises economic activity and employment' and its 'impact on local economic activity, employment and competitiveness will thus already be felt this year'
The plan contains some 45 measures and 1,000 projects. There are three series of measures:
- € 11.4 billion will be used to reimburse companies in order to improve their equity capital and cash flow (anticipated refund of research tax credit and VAT from the beginning of 2009) and to give them the means with which to invest. Thus, the State stood guarantor for six major French banks and credit insurers in order to secure the stability of the banking system and SME funding. Moreover, € 1 billion were awarded to financial subsidiaries of car manufacturers;
- The State will provide an additional € 11.1 billion for public investment, support for economic activity and employment with special efforts for housing (including doubling the total amount of loans with 0% interest rate) and solidarity (following the creation of Active Solidarity Income (Revenu de solidarité active, RSA (FR0811029I), the creation of an Active Solidarity Bonus (Prime de solidarité active, PSA) for 3.8 million low-income households, which will represent € 200 per family concerned by this measure;
- € 4 billion will be invested by major public companies to modernise and develop rail, energy and postal services infrastructure.
Moreover, the French government has adopted several measures concerning environmental matters and sustainable development. In his presidential campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy undertook to adopt such measures. Thus, after a process of consultations in 2007 and 2008, the French parliament adopted a law that is known as Environmental Grenelle I (Grenelle I de l’environnement). In 2009, it adopted Grenelle II. These measures, which are based on 'a new growth model', aim at ensuring that development takes into consideration environmental dimensions, which should make it possible to create 600,000 jobs. Moreover, the intention is that they should make it possible to attain 5 objectives, by seeking:
- the best conservation of biodiversity
- improvement of the quality of water (especially regarding pesticides)
- improvement of the quality of air
- reduction of acidifying atmospheric emissions
- reduction of heavy metal pollution.
2) Have there been any specific ministries or government departments set up to deal with green issues? If so, what is their mandate and remit?
Soon after Nicolas Sarkozy's election in 2007, the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Sea (ministère de l’écologie, de l’énergie, du développement durable et de la mer) was created on 1 June 2007. It is responsible for green technologies and climate negotiations. It is the second most important ministry in the government, according to French institutional hierarchy and authority. The President of the Republic distinguished it by appointing a Minister of State to head it.
The ministry's missions mean that it is involved in the following areas:
- resources, territories and housing: it creates infrastructure regarding transport, urban, industrial and agricultural areas... in order to support policies for 'being able to be housed, travel, work and live …';
- energy and climate;
- sustainable development: 'Development that endeavours to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs';
- prevention of risks;
- infrastructure, transport and sea: Transport is an essential actor of economic vitality and territorial planning, but it also potentially creates pollution.
The ministry has organised national public debates such as the Environmental Grenelles (since 2008), the Sea Grenelle (Grenelle de la mer) (since spring 2009), as well as coordinating government action via initiatives of the various ministries, which are involved in these issues and come under this ministry.
Thus, there are also functional directorates (for Europe, international issues, communication, human resources, budget and so forth) within a general secretariat.
The General Council of the Environment and Sustainable Development (Conseil général de l’environnement et du développement durable, CGEDD), which resulted from a merger of the General Roads and Bridges Council (Conseil général des Ponts et Chaussées) and the General Inspectorate of the Environment (Inspection générale de l’Environnement), carries out expert reports, studies, audits and assessments, as well as international cooperation missions that the Prime Minister and the ministries commission. It also makes inspections on their behalf in the areas of:
- the environment;
- the battle against climate change;
- transport and its infrastructure, security and safety;
- town and country planning, construction and public works;
- sea, apart from ship building and repairs, as well as sea fishing and aquaculture;
- sustainable territorial planning and development;
- housing, construction and urban policy.
The General Council of the Environment and Sustainable Development, which meets as an environmental authority, gives its opinion when asked by the Minister responsible for the environment or by the vice-president of the council on:
- environmental assessments;
- studies prior to carrying out changes or work that can have an impact on the natural environment.
Three inter-ministerial services are available for the Minister of State:
- Interministerial Department for Road Safety;
- Interministerial Department for Territorial Planning and Monitoring Competitiveness (Délégation interministérielle à l’aménagement et à la compétitivité des territoires, DIACT) ;
- General Secretariat of the sea (service of the Prime Minister).
In order to ensure consistency throughout the country, the separate regional directorates of infrastructure, industry and research will come together and form single regional directorates of ecology, development and sustainable planning, which will be responsible for implementing the objectives of sustainable development locally.
3) Have any tripartite social dialogue structures and/or procedures been set up to deal with green issues? If so, what is their aim and how do they operate? If there are a wide range of structures and procedures, please focus on the main ones.
In 2007, the launching of the Environment Grenelle (cf. point 1) created ad hoc working groups on specific topics, which brought people together not only on a tripartite, but quadripartite basis: State representatives, employer organisations, trade unions and NGOs involved in environmental issues.
Following on from the initial conclusions of this Grenelle, in summer 2008, the national Economic and Social Council (Conseil économique et social) became the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Conseil économique, social et environnemental). When its members are renewed in summer 2010, they should include environmental associations.
Previous consultations took place in the framework of the National Council for Sustainable Development (Conseil national du développement durable, CNDD. It meets the wishes of civil society actors, local authorities and the government regarding concrete participation of actors in enriching public policies. It is not a new body, but replaces the French Committee for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Comité français pour le sommet mondial du développement durable), whose mission is due to be continued both via the implementation of the plan of action that was adopted in Johannesburg and resulting initiatives and also via drawing up a national strategy for sustainable development.
The CNDD's role is to bring together representatives of civil society and local authorities in order to involve them in drawing up and implementing sustainable development policies. It thus has a consultative role as well as one of making proposals throughout the process of drawing up a national strategy concerning sustainable development.
The Interministerial Committee on Sustainable Development (Comité interministériel pour le développement durable, CIDD) replaces three existing bodies: the Interministerial Committee on the environment (Comité interministériel de l’environnement, CIEN), the Interministerial Commission on the Battle against the Greenhouse Effect (Commission interministérielle de lutte contre l’effet de serre, CIES) and the Interministerial Committee on Preventing Major Natural Risks (Comité interministériel de prévention des risques naturels majeurs, CIPRNM).
Besides carrying out the missions of the CIES and the CIPRNM, the CIDD is responsible for defining, leading, coordinating and ensuring the implementation of government policy regarding sustainable development. In this context, it adopted the national sustainable development strategy. It ensures that it is implemented and kept up-to-date. It examines the consistency of the actions of each ministry with the sustainable development policy decided upon by the government, especially regarding French positions and undertakings at European and international levels.
The CIDD, which is chaired by the Prime Minister, or at his request by the Minister responsible for Sustainable Development, was created by decree on 21 February 2003.
It is in this context that the National Sustainable Development Strategy (La Stratégie Nationale du Développement Durable, SNDD) was drawn up. The full text is available at: La Stratégie Nationale du Développement Durable (SNDD) - dossier complet
4) Have there been any of the following initiatives or actions in your country: Where the answer is yes, please provide a brief account of each one, focusing on the main ones.
- awareness-raising initiatives
- actions targetting specific sectors
- actions involving green procurement
- financial support and stimulus packages to boost eco-innovation
- support for green start-ups and entrepreneurial schemes
- training programmes to prepare the workforce for the transition to the green economy
- investment schemes in emerging products and services that could lead to the creation of green jobs in the future
- any other relevant initiatives or actions
Following the environmental Grenelles and the appearance of laws, several initiatives have been adopted. The main objectives and measures of the Grenelle draft law are as follows:
- Battle against climate change (article 2)
Confirmation of Factor 4, namely division of greenhouse effect emissions by four by 2050. Return to the 3x20 target by 2020, namely 20% reduction of emissions, 20% improvement of energy efficiency and 20% of energy consumption in the form of renewable energy. The last target was increased to 23% after the vote of Parliament (Assemblée Nationale) (article 17).
- Agriculture and biodiversity
Green and blue belt (Trame verte et bleue) (articles 21 to 23); creation of protected areas of land (article 20), acquisition of 20,000 hectares of wetlands, support for the creation of a biodiversity Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Groupe intergouvernemental sur l’évolution du climat, GIEC), 20% of the Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA) devoted to organic agriculture in 2020 (article 28), reduction by half of the use of pesticides (article 28); reversal of the onus of proof regarding public decisions (article 1)
- Research in the area of sustainable development (article 19) and more training
An additional € 1 billion by 2012; by 2012 reach a level of expenditure on clean and environmental protection technologies that is equivalent to that spent on civil nuclear energy.
- Improving the quality of water and reducing waste
15% reduction by 2012 of the quantity of residual waste that needs to be incinerated or stocked (article 41), 5kg reduction in the quantity of waste per inhabitant and per annum, increased recycling, incentive taxation of installations used for stocking and incinerating (General Tax on Activities that Pollute (Taxe générale sur les activités polluantes, TGAP)), banning of phosphates in washing products by 2012 (article 24)
- Impact on health
A second national health and environment plan will be drawn up via consultations in 2009 (article 32), improved information for companies and employees on reducing exposure to worrying substances (article 34), battle against noise (article 36), surveillance of electromagnetic waves from network operators – the results will be made public by the French Agency for Health and Safety of the Environment and Work (Agence française de sécurité sanitaire de l’environnement et du travail, AFSSET) (article 37) .
Along with this non-exhaustive list of measures, it is necessary to take into account sectoral targets regarding the reduction of energy consumption, such as in:
- Construction: the main source of energy savings (article 3), priority given to insulation, generalisation of low-consumption buildings (article 4) in new constructions, renovation of 400,000 homes per annum from 2013 onwards (article 5), 40% reduction in energy consumption of public buildings within a period of 8 years, end of incandescent bulbs; prospects of green growth?
- Transport: by 2020, reduction of greenhouse gases to their 1990 level (article 9), priority given to alternative forms of transport rather than road transport; building of 2,000 kilometres of high speed railway lines by 2020 (article 11), improvement of existing infrastructure (article 10); development of river transport.
- Town planning: changing town planning legislation in order to fight against reduced agricultural land and urban sprawl.
Mapping social partner responses, initiatives and tools
Please summarise the main unilateral and bipartite initiatives in your country in the following areas:
5) Positioning and stance in relation to the green agenda (eg any position papers)
Employer organisations and trade unions have participated together in all of the initiatives in the context of the Environment Grenelles.
They have been open-minded and formulated majority proposals regarding their concerns.
For example, they were able to support the revision of the law on new economic regulations that was adopted in 2001 in order to make it possible to take more account of the demands of sustainable development in companies. Negotiations between social partners are due to start on increasing the competences of the Workplace Health and Safety Committees (Comités de hygiène, de sécurité et des conditions de travail, CHSCT).
The General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT) welcomed progress while highlighting the issues that remain to be solved, such as funding and new openings such as the introduction of environmental competences for the Works Councils (Comités d'entreprise, CE) and CHSCTs. But it deplored that the recovery plan did not cover collective city and outer-city transport.
The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) considers that there should be a passage from principles to concrete action. It thus calls for a break - both with the State's management methods and with predominant economic paradigms. It notes that consensus was reached quickly, even too quickly, regarding the building industry and therefore obstacles, such as funding, have been underestimated.
In the General Confederation of Labour – Force ouvrière’s (Confédération générale du travail – Force ouvrière, CGT-FO) view, the Grenelle laws and their financial aspect are only a stage in a process that will take time with impact on jobs, quality of jobs and training. But, it is also necessary to keep an eye on possible deviations from a process, which – if there are not appropriate accompanying measures – can lead to major constraints on households' purchasing power and public services.
According to the French Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff – General Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff (Confédération française de l’encadrement – Confédération générale des cadres, CFE-CGC), the Environment Grenelle's conclusions have retained some of the proposals: creation of a green belt and of a national ecological network; entry of environmental issues into corporate governance with the creation of 'sustainable development' commissions in companies.
The French Christian Workers’ Confederation’s (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC) view is that it is important to associate citizens and civil society with the choice of indicators of sustainable development by taking into account its impact on the planet, be it in terms of degradation of nature or consumption of resources.
The Movement of French Enterprises (Mouvement des entreprises de France, MEDEF), which is opposed to the creation of a new additional tax, emphasised the usefulness of raising these issues with the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, as well as the regional Economic and Social Councils.
6) Attitudes and approaches of the social partners in relation to the green agenda
Cf. point 5
7) Any unilateral and joint strategies and actions, including:
- awareness-raising campaigns for members
The various employer organisations and trade unions organise awareness-raising campaigns for their own members, especially at the time of their congresses.
- bilateral dialogue structures, including those at sectoral level
The demands of sustainable development in companies are such that negotiations between the social partners are envisaged with a view to increasing the competences of the CHSCTs.
- capacity-building initiatives
- training programmes for members
Each organisation takes initiatives in this area, especially when they examine issues concerning health and safety.
8) The main initiatives for reviving the economy and promoting the green agenda, both general and sector-specific
After the announcements and the presentation of the recovery plan, the unions demanded that measures supporting consumption be added to the government's recovery plan, which focuses on public investment aid. They considered the responses to be insufficient and mobilised several times in the first half of 2009.
9) Any relevant studies and research
Several government studies have been made on environmental issues as well as specialised research by public agencies such as the AFFSET and the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Agence de l'environnement et de la maîtrise de l'énergie, ADEME)
Specialised institutes, such as the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (Institut du développement durable et des relations internationales, IDDRI) produce many reports.
10) Any other relevant responses, initiatives or tools
NGOs, environmental associations and consumer organisations, etc. also organise initiatives aimed at drawing public attention to these issues.
Views of the national centre
The process of discussions between the various actors concerned by the Environmental Grenelles was launched in 2007 and the legal measures regarding implementation date back to only a few months ago. It is therefore too early to make an evaluation of an issue, regarding which all actors seem to have understood what is at stake. They are also aware of the importance of developing economic activity in the context sustainable development, in a way that simultaneously takes into account environmental, social and economic concerns.
Benoît Robin, Institute for Economic and Social Research (IRES)