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• 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]

The 2015 Paris Agreement represents a historic deal in the form of a strong international response to address climate change. This outcome came as a surprise for some, as several controversial issues had been postponed from previous conferences, and were expected to complicate the talks in Paris. One related to the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage (L&D), and potential legal remedies for L&D in the form of compensation payments. This issue had been particularly contentious with some developing countries advocating ideas for climate damage liability, which developed countries were unwilling to include in an agreement. Although the negotiations on L&D secured many positive outcomes, Decision 1/CP.21 adopting the Paris Agreement notes that there is no possibility of claiming liability and financial compensation for developing countries. This article, however, argues that, rather than triggering endless compensation claims disputes, a liability mechanism could actually serve as a commitment and reciprocity device, ultimately increasing global policy ambition. In this regard, this article reports the results of two experiments testing the effects of liability rules on the climate policy investment decisions of two players that differ in wealth and vulnerability. Results show that liability rules imposing a responsibility for precaution on both parties increase cooperation significantly, consequentially minimizing risk of L&D occurrence in the first place. Liability rules could thus not only help to address future losses, but also to drive global mitigation and adaptation ambition. POLICY RELEVANCE The research results presented in this paper suggest that policymakers would be well advised to further intensify negotiations on a climate-related compensation mechanism beyond that already committed to in the Paris Agreement. Our findings show that a compensation mechanism that implements a rather simple negligence rule makes climate cooperation more attractive and rewarding, potentially leading rich and poor nations to boost their investments in mitigation and adaptation for climate protection. Thus, far from opening up a Pandora’s box of endless compensation claims towards industrialized countries, a liability mechanism could make global climate cooperation more effective, and in the longer run also less costly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents recent notifications to the European Commission under Directive (EU) 2015/1535. They include a notification on the adoption of veterinary and hygiene requirements for certain food business operators handling animal products in the Czech Republic. Another is an order that extends the framework of the Inter-branch Association of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Industry in France. Also included is a notification on environmental protection product charges in Hungary.

The article presents recent notifications to the European Commission under Directive (EU) 2015/1535. They include a notification on the adoption of veterinary and hygiene requirements for certain food business operators handling animal products in the Czech Republic. Another is an order that extends the framework of the Inter-branch Association of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Industry in France. Also included is a notification on environmental protection product charges in Hungary.

This paper provides a chronological account of the eventful adoption of France's first law on shale gas. This governance issue calls into question the implementation of environmental principles, such as the principles of prevention, public information and participation, which were constitutionalized in the 2005 Environmental Charter. The hesitations of the French government illustrate the management difficulties at the state level with regards to new unconventional hydrocarbons that have a particular impact on the environment. On 13th July 2011, the legislator adopted a law that prohibited the use of hydraulic fracturing for the prospection of shale gas and oil. Although this represents a world first, it was designed hastily and has failed to satisfy any of the stakeholders involved. We examine the chronology of events, with particular focus on the chaotic governmental and legislative responses to public pressure on an unprecedented scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In France, freshwater recreational fishing management does not sufficiently satisfy anglers. Fishing effort is too high creating congestion costs and environmental quality is low while there is a positive willingness-to-pay for improvements. These inefficiencies are explained by three phenomena. First, private property rights are attenuated under institutional pressure. Second, recreational fishing is managed as an open access resource over the whole territory. Finally, halieutic policies focus on the protection of environmental resources and are inefficient at maximizing the social rent provided by recreational fisheries. Fishing effort regulation and environmental services provision following the beneficiary-pays principle could improve collective welfare. Social pricing could ensure equity in access to the resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A contingent valuation study was carried out under similar conditions on two sites simultaneously: Strasbourg (France) and Kehl (Germany) in order to test the reliability of the benefit transfer method. On average, the air quality is approximately the same in the two cities. Using a transfer of the benefit function, we compared the direct estimated benefits from improved air quality with the transferred benefits in the same city. The originality of this test is that the valued good is the same in both cities, which means that the transfer is an “intra-site” transfer. However our findings show that the method of benefit transfer was not generally valid. Indeed inhabitants of Kehl declared a higher price for their state of health and air quality than inhabitants in Strasbourg. This result could be explained by a stronger sensitivity to environmental problems in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article examines the French environmental movement as a product of two main structures of French political life: the centralized French technocratic state and the major parties as they exist in the current phase of French politics. The expansion of the state into new areas of life, and the failure of the political parties to act as intermediaries between national governments and citizenry, to serve as channels for organized conflict resolution, has stimulated the proliferation of citizens' groups which, deliberately bypass the parties and the state to articulate demands for better environmental quality. It is this failure of traditional political institutions that has generated what the author argues to be in the eyes of French analysts a particularly American solution, and in the eyes of American political analysts a very French solution. It is American in that it seeks to avoid questions of class, class-consciousness and collective versus private ownership of the means of production, and in that it is avowedly antistatist. It is French in that it has very quickly gone beyond a focus on site preservation, on reducing pollution, nuisance, disamenity, and other negative externalities to focus on restructuring French society in fundamental ways and that the route towards that social restructuring is political.

The article reports that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has revealed a national pact for the environment in France. Prime Minister de Villepin called on all French citizens, businesses and the government to play strong roles in protecting the environment during his monthly press conference on October 4, 2006. In addition, he informs that the government will offer €10 billion in low-interest loans to businesses and households for energy-saving projects. Several initiatives include increasing the number of petrol stations offering low-emission, ethanol-based fuel and creating new nature parks.

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.

This article focuses on the problems posed during the first phase involved in implementing the Habitat directive in France, that is, the identification of sites at a national level. The approach taken consisted in drawing links, from a chronological perspective, between changes in the procedures on the one hand and the combination of players and institutions on the other, with the two exerting an influence on each other. The analysis mainly involved holding interviews with representatives concerned by the Habitats directive, consulting administrative documents and interpreting texts or declarations issued by socio-professional organizations or by associations. The system, explained in this article, is initially devised by the Ministry for the Environment. The problems of implementing the procedure, be they problems relating to administrative and scientific difficulties or disputes concerning its legitimacy is then explained. The types of dispute and the reasons why the Ministry became isolated, with a view to understanding the considerable modifications made to the system since 1996 as well as their repercussion, is also one of the issues.