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France has played an active role in the environmental policy field in Africa prior to, during, and since the European colonial era on the continent in the 19th century. However, because France's overseas activities receive inadequate attention in the Anglophone literature, knowledge of this role is scant among English‐speaking scholars. This article analyzes French activities in the environmental policy field in Africa. The focus is on five specific substantive environmental policy areas: land tenure, forestry, agriculture, mining, and the built environment. The main objective is to highlight the environmental fairness, equity, and justice implications of French activities in these areas. The activities are shown to be unfair, inequitable, and unjust to traditionally marginalized societal groups. These groups were comprised of indigenous Africans during the colonial era and, thereafter, of the poor, women, and ethnic minorities. National and international authorities would do well to institute fairness, equity, and justice as a requirement for all initiatives, especially by multinational corporations, in the environmental policy field in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Ciências da Administração is the property of Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Departamento de Ciencias da Administracao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Geopolitical risks and environmental policy have become increasingly important in the European Union (EU), which is committed to tackling climate change and protecting the environment. However, geopolitical risks can undermine its environmental policy objectives. Thus, the study evaluates the relationship between geopolitical risks and environmental policy in nineteen EU countries from 1994 to 2020 through panel bootstrap Granger causality. The results show that geopolitical risks significantly influence environmental policy in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Romania. On the other hand, the findings reveal that environmental policy causes geopolitical risks only in Latvia, while there is no relationship in the remaining countries. Therefore, policymakers must develop resilience to geopolitical risks, promote renewable energy, strengthen environmental regulations, and address social and economic implications to reduce environmental policy vulnerability to geopolitical risks., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In the middle of the last century, the emergence of a new risk, the climate risk, was a sudden and largely unexpected phenomenon that has significantly changed our vision of environmental issues. Of course, the link between humans and nature is strong and ancient: a country like France has very few landscapes that have not been shaped by generations of builders, foresters or farmers. But climate change linked to greenhouse gas emissions has brought about a radically new problem, whose novelty results from its very nature. The risk of climate change was revealed by equations or very indirect observations, before it was even really observable. But the speed of its progression, with greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere which have so far never stopped increasing and accelerating their growth, has made a huge difference. Moreover, this evolution has developed in a context where it has been intimately intertwined with other rapidly changing issues: energy, environmental, social, political and demographic. However, despite the variety of warning signals put forward by the scientific community, despite the now widely shared recognition of the existence of strong climate challenges, the dynamics with which these changes have developed, very often remain underestimated and even misunderstood. Climate risk is still very often associated with a certain form of immobility, marked by the repetition of discourse that gives the impression that the stakes have changed little over the last few decades. This incomplete awareness is one of the most important brakes on the development of effective environmental policies, because it erases an essential dimension of current climate issues: we are facing a problem that is very advanced in its development and everything is no longer possible today. The future world will necessarily be marked by the need to arbitrate between partially contradictory issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of the Volkswagen emission crisis in 2015, the biggest greenwashing event in recent years, on the online consumer engagement of Facebook brand pages was investigated in France, Germany, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. These countries have been selected for the reason that Volkswagen sales and diesel‐engine cars and the use of social media are quite common. For 6 years in these four countries, the likes, comments, and shares made by consumers on the Facebook brand page of Volkswagen have been examined. The monthly dataset covers January 2012 to December 2017. The obtained data were analyzed with autoregressive–moving average models. Despite a globally positive approach to green products, countries' attitudes toward greenwashing have been significantly different. The findings showed that online consumer engagement was negative in the United Kingdom and Turkey and in a positive direction in Germany, whereas there was no change in France in the fourth quarter of 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We provide a method for analyzing the French law on natural hazards and environmental protection for land planning. • A diagnosis of the coherence and difficulties related to the implementation of public policies at the local level is presented. • We present an inventory of regulatory texts. • An analytical model for identifying and linking risk management tools is presented. • We present its application to 3 French territories. French public authorities have to manage the protection of the environment and risks. This study proposes a method for analyzing the French law on environmental hazards and the protection of the environment in the context of land planning. The main question asked is: Do the difficulties of implementing environmental policies stem from the complexity of the law or from the organization of local land management? The final aim is to offer reading keys to aid local planning decisions in France. The approach proposed is based on collecting and organizing the regulations, analyzing their application in practice, and comparing the legal standpoints to the logic of local decision-makers. This study demonstrates the extent to which French environmental regulations are complex and how they can be adapted locally in order to improve their application and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental policy monitoring requires data with suitable spatial and temporal resolutions. We present a new method of spatialising pesticide sales in France to monitor environmental policies on a territorial scale. Data on pesticide sales in France are available yearly at a postal code resolution. Our spatialisation model combines parcel-scale land use data with information on pesticide types and applied doses, based on legal authorisations for pesticide use in France. We compared the performance of our new model with that of a simple surface fraction model in two distinct territories: Bourville (830 ha, Normandy), a small catchment composed of two small postal code fractions with available ground truth data about pesticide application, and Pleine-Fougères (12,007 ha, Britany), a larger area with a single postal code comprising seven municipalities with contrasting inter-municipal land uses and no ground truth information about pesticide application. For the Bourville site, due to homogeneous land use, the new model was no better than the simple model for global pesticide use, but it performed better when the results were analysed by crop type. For the Pleine-Fougères site, the new model was effective in distinguishing the use of pesticides by municipality, whereas the simple model was not. Our results demonstrate that our new model improves pesticide use quantification at a territorial level and can provide valid support for monitoring public policies regarding water quality and pesticide use over time and space. [Display omitted] • We propose a new spatialisation model of pesticide sales for France. • We apply the new model to two study areas and compare it with the model currently in use. • The results from the new model were consistent with the ground truth by land use type. • The new model helps to differentiate contrasting areas of pesticide use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agri-environmental schemes (AES) are a central component of the European environmental policy, but few of these schemes have been carefully evaluated and doubts are often expressed about their effectiveness. We use original data collected from winegrowers who participated in an AES targeting non-point source pollution from herbicides in 2011 and 2012 in the South region of France. Using the variation in the implementation of the scheme across time and space and a matching approach, we show that the quantity of herbicides used by participants in the scheme in 2011 ranges from 38 to 53% below what they would have used without the scheme and this percentage is between 42 and 50% in 2012. Further, our results suggest that least demanding AES options are effective in avoiding pollution peaks when weed pressure is high, whereas more demanding AES options guarantee an overall reduction in herbicide use, even during relatively easy farming years in which less weed pressure is experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction between mitigation and adaptation is a key question for the design of climate policies. In this paper, we study how land use adaptation to climate change impacts land use competition in the agriculture, forest and other land use (AFOLU) sector and how a mitigation policy in agriculture might affect this competition. We use for this purpose two sector-specific bio-economic models of agriculture and forest combined with an econometric land use shares model to simulate the impacts of two climate change scenarios (A2 and B1, 2100 horizon), and a greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture policy consisting of a tax of between 0 and 200 €/tCO 2 equivalent. Our results show that both climate change scenarios lead to an increase in the area devoted to agriculture at the expense of forest which could have a negative impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. The mitigation policy would curtail agricultural expansion, and thus could counteract the effects of land use adaptation to climate change. In other words, accounting for land use competition results in a reduction of the abatement costs of the mitigation policy in the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to show that, along with the concepts of common property and common-pool resources, the concept of common patrimony can be relevant for analyzing collective natural resource management. We proceed in three steps. First, we present the concept of common patrimony and we distinguish it from common property and common-pool resources. We show that the notion of common patrimony allows identity, historical, territorial and institutional dimensions to be taken into account as it places social dimension at the center of the analysis. Second, we illustrate the common patrimony concept by using the case of water management policy in France. Third, we place common patrimony within the framework of social ecological economics and we identify links with other approaches addressing institutional dimensions of water resource management. We outline some research questions that can be developed to contribute to a better understanding of collective natural resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the link between carbon dioxide (C O 2 ) emissions and income inequality in France over 1980–2018, focusing on the choice of income inequality indicators in use. To do so, we use a new source of data on net (post-tax and transfer) income inequality indicators using net Gini and Atkinson indexes. We also use market (pre-tax and transfer) income inequality indicators utilizing the market Gini index and share of market income earned by the richest 10% of the population. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, we find that income inequality has a different impact on C O 2 emissions, depending on the income definition used for estimated disparities. Furthermore, the ARDL test shows that the market inequality coefficients are non-significant. However, net inequality indicators reduce C O 2 emissions, and these results are consistent with the marginal propensity to emit theories, where some inequality could remain necessary to environmental quality. • Investigate the relationship between income inequality and C O 2 emissions in France, using alternative income inequality indicators. • We apply the method of ARDL for estimations. • We find that the relationship between income inequality and C O 2 emissions varies with income inequality measure. • Empirical findings suggest ensuring environmental policies besides income redistribution policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union environmental policy has created a unique regulatory framework to favour aquatic ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation across European countries. Identifying the spatial structure of freshwater fish population dynamics is crucial to define region-specific management and conservation planning. To implement evidence-driven management and conservation decisions at a regional scale we assessed spatial heterogeneity in common freshwater fish population dynamics in France with a focus on trends in River Basin Districts (RBDs). The abundance and biomass growth rates of 18 common European freshwater fish species were estimated with state-space models on 546 sites distributed across the 5 main RBDs sampled in France between 1990 and 2011. Anguilla anguilla , Rutilus rutilus , Salmo trutta fario and Esox spp. exhibited large scale decline in abundance and/or biomass in several RBDs. The other species showed spatial heterogeneity in population growth rates. The main declines were observed in the Adour-Garonne and Loire-Bretagne RBDs, where management and conservation measures are urgently needed to halt the erosion of freshwater fish populations. In each of the 5 investigated RBDs, our results highlight areas where most of the common species we studied exhibited negative population growth rates. Freshwater fish surveys provide the fundamental information necessary to inform the European environmental policies and local environmental management needed to restore freshwater biodiversity. The next steps are to identify the main drivers of freshwater biodiversity erosion in the areas where we demonstrated major declines and to define the most cost-effective restoration measures. • Population dynamic analyses at the regional scale provide crucial information. • Two main River Basin Districts in France exhibit major fish decline. • Four common European freshwater fish species decline at a large scale. • Intra-River Basin District variability in fish population dynamics request local management. • Population dynamic analyses provide complementary information to ecological indexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to practically contribute to the literature on the use of cost–benefit analysis (CBA) and economic evaluation in environmental decision-making through a practical case study: the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in France, for the first cycle (2010–2015). The WFD requires that Member States achieve “good status” for all water bodies in 2015. However, exemptions can apply, if justified, on natural, technical or economic reasons. For the latter, EU guidance documents recommend to use CBA. In France, the water agencies carried out 710 CBAs on proposed restoration projects for water bodies. This article reports on this experience. Issues concerning these analyses are discussed, especially the assessment of non-market benefits. Finally, this article questions the use of economic analysis in the implementation of environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights the challenge of environmental inequality in France within the framework of social-ecology, an approach relating ecological crises to social issues, especially inequality. It starts by denning the notions of environmental inequality and environmental justice within the framework of the 'capability approach' and then reviews recent empirical studies that show how air pollution, chemical and noise pollutions, access to environmental resources and exposure to social-ecological disasters are socially differentiated in France and can be understood, under the definition adopted in this article, as a form of injustice. It concludes by reviewing issues raised by environmental inequality in France and exploring policy solutions able to address this challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Offsetting development impacts could help achieve no net loss of biodiversity. [•] France recently geared its legislation on offsetting towards no net loss. [•] New guidance promises improved offset design and implementation. [•] Institutional arrangements for delivering offsets are either poor or lacking. [•] Appropriate institutional arrangements are necessary to avoid paper offsets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement is the property of Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Sociologie du Travail is the property of Association pour le Developpement de la Sociologie du Travail and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The sociotecimical infrastructure required to implement environmental policies has a definite political content: it frames and influences public action, most often in an implicit way. In this paper we take a normative stance on democratic governance, which raises the need for making this infrastructure debatable. We focus on the specific case of drought management in France, which has developed an infrastructure that consists of zoning, measurement networks and threshold definition for critical flows in order to be able to assess a current hydrological situation in any place and to associate it to a specific crisis level. First we identify the various criticisms voiced by stakeholders in drought commit- tees such as challenging the infrastructure's technical validity setting out its inadequacy to a specific context, disqualifying its use due to the gap between science and the existing practice. We then suggest introducing a tool borrowed from the anthropology of techniques : the operational chain. We propose to use it to render explicit and debatable the infrastructure, its structure and content and on top of that the “regulatory science” which it stems from. This tool entails overcoming the various forms of criticism observed as well as dealing collectively with the tension between principles of justice and adaptation to local conditions. We argue that it may also provide a medium to associate lay people in the development or the revision of the infrastructure itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes French public perception of climate change, environmental policy development, and environmental performance in the wake of a deadly heat-wave in France in August of 2003. It is suggested that the French are among the most concerned about the problem of climate change in the European Union and are committed to emissions mitigation. The challenges facing public policy designed to achieve a fourfold reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 are assessed. The impact the global economic crisis will have on building legal and national consensus in regard to climate change in France is discussed.

Selective fishing pressure on more highly valued marine living resources is one of the key factors proposed to explain changes occurring in fish communities and associated landings of commercial fisheries. The aim of this paper is to establish the nature of changes in the landings of French fishing fleets operating in the Bay of Biscay in the period 1973-2002, and whether these changes could be related to the relative economic attractiveness of different fish species. The analysis focuses on trends observed in the landings of all commercial fish species over the last three decades. It is based on data of annual quantities landed and ex-vessel prices compiled from official French landings records, and on bio-geographical descriptors of these species derived from published data. Using simple index numbers and multivariate analysis, we examined changes in total landings in terms of their volume and value, as well as changes in their composition. We show that the composition of landings significantly changed over the study period, with an increase in the proportion of pelagic species, of lower economic value. The average ex-vessel price of production by the fleets tended to decrease from the late 1980s; partly due to a cross-species drop in prices, occurring mainly after 1993, but also to the increased proportion of low-priced species in the landings. This caused a significant drop in the total gross value of production in the second half of the study period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All advanced industrialized societies face the problem of air pollution produced by motor vehicles. In spite of striking improvements in internal combustion engine technology, air pollution in most urban areas is still measured at levels determined to be harmful to human health. Throughout the 1990s and beyond, California and France both chose to improve air quality by means of technological innovation, adopting legislation that promoted clean vehicles, prominently among them, electric vehicles (EVs). In California, policymakers chose a technology-forcing approach, setting ambitious goals (e.g., zero emission vehicles), establishing strict deadlines and issuing penalties for non-compliance. The policy process in California called for substantial participation from the public, the media, the academic community and the interest groups affected by the regulation. The automobile and oil industries bitterly contested the regulation, in public and in the courts. In contrast, in France the policy process was non-adversarial, with minimal public participation and negligible debate in academic circles. We argue that California's stringent regulation spurred the development of innovative hybrid and fuel cell vehicles more effectively than the French approach. However, in spite of the differences, both California and France have been unable to put a substantial number of EVs on the road. Our comparison offers some broad lessons about how policy developments within a culture influence both the development of technology and the impact of humans on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on various topics related to economics including "The Construction of Micro-Regional Territories and their Economic Relevance: The Case of the Pays in France," by F. Aubert, D. Lépicier, P. Perrier-Cornet and Y. Senvébé, "The Implementation of Environmental Policies by Local Actors: A Study of a Zone Located in France," by O. Aznar, M. Guérin and P. Jeanneaux, and "Planning Policy and Agricultural Multifunctionality in Alpine Sillon," by N. Bertrand, P. Fleury and C. Janin.

Traces the emergence and transformation of differing environmental sensibilities in France from the mid-19th century to the Second World War. Indication that environmental concerns in the form of landscape protection did not follow a linear path into the second half of the 20th century; Importance of the French colonial encounter in shaping two distinct sets of ideas regarding the protection of the natural world; Differences between conservationism and preservationism.

Since 2012, France has been engaged in its energy and environmental policy transformation. The legislative framework for this change is the Energy transition for green growth Act. The policy on energy transition and sustainable development is carried out at the local level by the regions which rely on their territories. This paper aims to provide a useful tool to policy-makers in order to monitor sustainable development and energy transition policies in Norman territories. This first part of the research provides the evaluation's framework through an Energy Transition and Sustainable Development Index. The methodological strategy is based on a systematic literature survey on both academic work related to energy transition and sustainable development and the Normady's sustainable development and energy transition policies. Based on literature review, the study identified six policy-packages in which policy-makers may act: The "environment and resources use", the "sustainable territories and mobility", the "energy security and transition", the "economic dynamics", the "governance dimension" and the "social dimension". The index is built using the budget allocation process approach. Strengths and weaknesses of the index are clearly identified and highlighted in order to warn future users of the tool the cautions they should take in the implementation of the index, including challenges to make data available for such an implementation. • The paper evaluates France's energy transition Policy at the Normandy region level. • A local index of energy transition and sustainable development is constructed. • Three profiles of territories are identified: Leading, intermediate and timid transition territories. • Six policy-packages in which policy-makers may act are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie is the property of Presses Universitaires de France and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study explores the impact of environmental policies and human development on the CO 2 emissions for the period of 1995-2015 in the Group of Seven and BRICS economies in the long run through panel cointegration and causality tests. The causality analysis revealed a bilateral causality between environmental stringency policies and CO 2 emissions for Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and a unilateral causality from CO 2 emissions to the environmental stringency policies for Canada, China, and France. On the other hand, the analysis showed a bilateral causality between human development and CO 2 emissions for Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, and unilateral causality from CO 2 emissions to human development in Brazil, Canada, China, and France. Furthermore, the cointegration analysis indicated that both environmental stringency policies and human development had a decreasing impact on the CO 2 emissions.

In the European Union (EU) context, regulatory instruments and incentive schemes targeting individual farms remain the main policy instruments implemented to control diffuse pollution from agriculture. Yet, collective approaches to policy implementation have been recently developing. This article aims at assessing the potential for hybrid policy instruments relying on collective action among farmers to limit diffuse nitrate pollution from agriculture. Transaction cost economics are used to assess the potential advantages of collective action as a complement to regulatory and incentive policy tools. The conditions under which such hybrid forms of governance may be successful are identified using the Social-Ecological System (SES) framework. A review of empirical studies documenting cases of collective action for policy implementation in the EU context serves as a basis for the identification of the factors likely to affect the potential of collective approaches for water quality management in agriculture. The analysis relies more particularly on two cases: the Environmental Cooperatives in the Netherlands and the "Ferti-Mieux" operations in France. The results suggest that collective action is a relevant tool to consider for improving the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of policies targeting diffuse pollution from agriculture. In particular, relying on farmers' cooperation for policy implementation may be associated with advantages in terms of transaction costs. However, such advantages will be effective under a number of conditions related to the characteristics of the water resource, the actors involved, the governance of cooperation and the broader economic and institutional contexts., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

On 1 June Nicolas Hulot, the French Minister of Ecological and Solidary Transition (i.e. the environment minister), presented to the main players in the sector his plan for the deployment of hydrogen as a tool for the future of the global energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of ecosystem knowledge is an essential condition for effective environmental management but using available knowledge to solve environmental controversies is still difficult in "real" situations. This paper explores the conditions under which ecological knowledge could contribute to the environmental strategies and actions of stakeholders at science-policy interface. Ecological restoration of the Seine estuary is an example of an environmental issue whose overall management has run into difficulties despite the production of a large amount of knowledge by a dedicated organization, GIP Seine Aval. Thanks to an action-research project, based on a futures study, we analyze the reasons of these difficulties and help the GIP Seine Aval adopt a robust strategy to overcome them. According to our results, most local stakeholders involved in the large-scale restoration project emphasize the need for a clear divide between knowledge production and environmental action. This kind of divide may be strategic in a context where the robustness of environmental decisions is strongly depending on the mobilization of "neutral" scientific knowledge. But in our case study, this rather blocks action because some powerful stakeholders continuously ask for more knowledge before taking action. The construction and analysis of possible future scenarios has led to three alternative strategies being identified to counter this stalemate situation: (1) to circumvent difficulties by creating indirect links between knowledge and actions; (2) to use knowledge to sustain advocacy for the interests of each and every stakeholder; (3) to involve citizens in decisions about knowledge production and use, so that environmental issues weight more on the local political agenda.

Objective: In life-cycle assessment, the functional unit defines the unit for calculation of environmental indicators. The objective of the present study was to assess the influence of two functional units, 100 g and 100 kcal (420 kJ), on the associations between three dimensions for identifying sustainable foods, namely environmental impact (via greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE)), nutritional quality (using two distinct nutrient profiling systems) and price., Design: GHGE and price data were collected for individual foods, and were each expressed per 100 g and per 100 kcal. Two nutrient profiling models, SAIN,LIM and UK Ofcom, were used to assess foods' nutritional quality. Spearman correlations were used to assess associations between variables. Sustainable foods were identified as those having more favourable values for all three dimensions., Setting: The French Individual and National Dietary Survey (INCA2), 2006-2007., Subjects: Three hundred and seventy-three foods highly consumed in INCA2, covering 65 % of total energy intake of adult participants., Results: When GHGE and price were expressed per 100 g, low-GHGE foods had a lower price and higher SAIN,LIM and Ofcom scores (r=0·59, -0·34 and -0·43, respectively), suggesting a compatibility between the three dimensions; 101 and 100 sustainable foods were identified with SAIN,LIM and Ofcom, respectively. When GHGE and price were expressed per 100 kcal, low-GHGE foods had a lower price but also lower SAIN,LIM and Ofcom scores (r=0·67, 0·51 and 0·47, respectively), suggesting that more environment-friendly foods were less expensive but also less healthy; thirty-four sustainable foods were identified with both SAIN,LIM and Ofcom., Conclusions: The choice of functional unit strongly influenced the compatibility between the sustainability dimensions and the identification of sustainable foods.

Information about several topics discussed during the European Federation of Clean Air and Environmental Protection Associations (EFCA) symposium held in Strasbourg, France on November 6-7, 2008 is presented. Issues on climate change and air pollution were tackled. The symposium examined the effectiveness and enforcement issues associated with various policy choices for policy-makers of potential future actions.

The article discusses the deadline for the action plan in reducing noise in France's largest cities which stems from the 2002 European Union's (EU) antinoise directive. It says that the first stage of the EU directive required mapping noise levels in all cities with at least 250,000 people. However, major European cities are missing the deadline for the noise maps. Report shows that most of the reduction noise in cities will come from changing transportation infrastructure. The solutions discussed are making the noise sources quiter and insulating buildings better from outside noise. It also notes that the complexity of dealing with noise is impossible, but European cities are trying to comply with the policy.

The article reports that President Nicolas Sarkozy imposed a moratorium on the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in Paris, France. The temporary ban was one in a set of environmental policies announced at the end of a 2-day roundtable meeting on the environment in the country. According to reports, Sarkozy wanted to suspend the cultivation of Monsanto 810, an insect-resistance maize and the only GM crop grown in the country, until a new regulatory agency could be set up to properly assess its risks and advantages. EuropaBio stated that the ban violates European rules, basing its premise on a European Commission spokesperson who stated that countries cannot ban the European Union-approved strain. André Choulika of France Biotech expects a hotter GM debate.

Criticizes a vote by France's National Assembly to write the precautionary principle into the country's constitution. Precautionary principle featured in environmental law since the 1970s; Response of the French Academy of Sciences to the move by the French charter to make the precautionary principle directly applicable; Issues that can be addressed in constitutions.