January 2016
abstract
Responsabilité & Environnement
La participation des populations aux décisions environnementales
Issue editor:
Philippe LEDENVIC
Issue 81
1 - Regulations and changes over time
Regulations in France since the Bouchardeau Act
By Philippe LEDENVIC
Président de l'Autorité environnementale
In a country as centralized as France, public participation in the process of making decisions about the environment was not at all self-evident. It has taken concrete form under the so-called Bouchardeau Act of 12 July 1983 on the democratization of public inquiries and protection of the environment. Initially limited to such hearings, the scope of this participation has been expanded through various national or European rules and regulations. Nonetheless, much is still to be done to generalize this practice. The proposals formulated by Alain Richard in his report on 3 June 2015 to the minister in charge of Ecology should make a major contribution.
What the Aarhus Convention and INSPIRE Directive have changed
By Bruno VERLON
Ex-adjoint à la Commissaire générale au développement durable, ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie
The Aarhus Convention has laid the basis for reviving participatory democracy in environmental matters. The EU’s INSPIRE Directive fits in with the same rationale: by establishing an infrastructure of geographic information at the EU level, it seeks to improve the operation of democracy thanks to the publication of environmental information available to everyone. At the national level, a CNTE committee specialized in democratizing the environmental dialog has formulated proposals for redressing current shortcomings, the aim still being to reinforce environmental democracy’s transparency and effectiveness upstream in the process leading to major projects. The French government has referred to these proposals for drafting an executive order.
The chaotic history of information on the environment in France
By Thierry LAVOUX
Membre honoraire du CGEDD, ministère de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie, ancien responsable des études et synthèses à l’IFEN
The performance of public environmental policies is based on the means used to observe and measure pollution (of the air, water, soil…). The data thus provided is intended for decision-makers and the public. Information on the state of the environment as it results from interactions between ecosystems and the economy (production and consumption) is available in the form of indicators or reports (since the early 1970s in France and the 1980s/90s at the international level). For this purpose, two institutions were created: the French Institute of the Environment (IFEN) and European Environment Agency (EEA) in 1992. The EEA has been spared protests directed at its objectives and assignments. In contrast, IFEN, given its board of administration, scientific council and committee of users, had leeway under the Ministry of the Environment; but since the turn of the century, this institute has vanished, merged into the ministry’s central administration. This recentralization has restricted the goals initially set even though it is ever more important to inform the public about private and public policies.
2 - The major participants
Investigators’ changing role
By Brigitte CHALOPIN
Présidente de la Compagnie nationale des commissaires enquêteurs (CNCE)
Since the monarchy with its commissaires, the duties and role of “investigating commissioners” (commissaires enquêteurs) in conducting public inquiries have changed considerably. Independent owing to recruitment procedures, impartial by conviction and professional ethics, qualified thanks to acquired experiences and ongoing training, responsible for public participation, these investigators are inevitable players in a “French style” public inquiry, itself the outcome of a process over several centuries that undeniably corresponds to the advance of democracy. However these investigators will have to continue adapting to technological and societal changes so as to better respond to the aspirations of a public ever more attentive to preserving the quality of the environment and of life.
Public hearings: Democratizing and legitimating decisions
By Christian LEYRIT
Président de la Commission nationale du débat public
The French National Commission of Public Debate (CNDP) has the assignment of informing citizens and letting their opinions be heard during the procedures leading to decisions about big development projects of national interest. In this era of the Internet and social networks with major changes in the circulation of information and opinions, citizens expect to be better informed, consulted and heard at all levels during the decision-making process. They are also increasingly aware of long-term planetary issues related to climate change, energy and the environment. News over the past months has echoed these themes. Intense conflict about - or even the blockage of - several projects leads us to raise questions about how to draw up plans, consult citizens and make decisions. These topics lie at the center of the participatory democracy launched by the president of France at the end of 2014.
The Environmental Authority and public participation in decision-making
By Michel BADRÉ
Président de l’Autorité environnementale du Conseil général de l'environnement et du développement durable (CGEDD) de 2009 à 2014
Since 2009 in France, an “environmental authority” issues opinions about projects that will have an impact on the environment. This procedure which stems from transposing two EU directives into French law, has three objectives: lead project sponsors to better take into account environmental issues; facilitate public participation in drafting decisions as foreseen under the Aarhus Convention and French law (the 2005 constitutional charter); and inform officials responsible for authorizing operations. After describing institutional arrangements over the past five years, a comparison is made of how the Environmental Authority’s opinions are perceived by the three “targeted” groups: project sponsors, officials and the general public.
Toward continuous public participation in the realization of projects
By Claude CHARDONNET
Présidente de C&S Conseils
Under French law, the conduct of plans for investments in transportation is to be grounded on the principle of ongoing cooperation with a direct, regular dialog between elected officials, institutions, NGOs, corporations and inhabitants. This principle of continuous participation - from before to after the project’s completion - has resulted from the pressure placed on prime contractors by laws, regulations and the public. Implementing this principle is not, however, a cinch, given the difficulty of striking a balance between the strong aspirations of watchful NGOs, the assessments made by the National Commission of Public Debate (CNDP), the opinions issued by the French Environmental Authority and the progress to be made in pursuing projects or improving their profit-earning capacity.
Introductory speech to the nineteenth international conference of the Secrétariat International Francophone pour l'Évaluation Environnementale (SIFÉE)
By Yves PRÉVOST
Spécialiste de l’environnement à la Banque mondiale
In the current context where protecting the environment is a political issue of lesser importance, environmental experts must improve the quality, coherence and pertinence of their assessments. It is necessary for this profession to renew its approaches and practices by returning to the theme of sustainable development (its reason for being) and drafting reports that, owing to their treatment of relevant issues and their intelligibility, will contribute to a structured and reasoned public debate.
Was the strategic environmental assessment of the installation of a shale gas industry in Quebec genuinely innovative?
By Gilles CÔTÉ
Directeur général du Secrétariat international francophone pour l’évaluation environnementale (SIFÉE - Montréal (Québec))
For several years now, accelerating technological progress and the growing demand for energy have created conditions favorable to developing unconventional sources of petroleum and natural gas. However concerns have been voiced about speeding up the development of these new energy sources. In this context, public authorities in Quebec required a strategic environmental assessment and two public hearings on developing the province’s share of the Utica Shale. Following this procedure, which lasted more than four years, Quebec’s prime minister announced that shale gas would not be tapped. At first sight, this case clearly illustrates the role that environmental assessments and public participation should have in the process leading up to the adoption of socially acceptable decisions. But a closer look at the factors underlying the social acceptability of the decision-making process makes us shade our opinion in finer tints.
3 - What changes in the future?
Consultation and cooperation: From a democratic demand to a managerial requirement
By Bertrand PANCHER
Député-maire de Bar-le-Duc, président de Décider ensemble
Given recent events, questions arise about how to open a dialog on environmental issues. That a project of little importance (building a reservoir dam at Sivens, in southwestern France) led to the death of a young environmental activists seems to lack rationality. Nothing justifies the intensity of such a conflict given that the tools for establishing a real dialog between stakeholders exist. Our decision-making system is blocked. It no longer manages to create the conditions necessary for calmly making decisions and taking into account all parties’ interests. To make up for the current inadequacies of the environmental dialog, France’s president has initiated a legislative procedure and conferred responsibility for it on Alain Richard in the Conseil National de la Transition Écologique (CNTE).
Daring to make democratic innovations for speeding up the environmental transition
By Florence DENIER-PASQUIER
Secrétaire nationale de France Nature Environnement (FNE)
NGOs committed to protecting the environment represent a regular form of participation by the population in decision-making about the environment. France Nature Environnement federates three thousand organizations in France and its overseas territories. Their practical, everyday involvement in participatory procedures related to the environment has given shape to a pool of experiences so vast that it is hard to draw up an exhaustive list.
A digital revolution for environmental consultation and cooperation
By Gilles BERHAULT
Président du Comité 21, le Comité français pour le développement durable, et du Comité d’orientation du Club France Développement durable.
Gilles Berhault , chairman of Comité 21 and of the Comité d’Orientation du Club France Développement Durable, chief representative of Association Communication et Innovation pour le Développement Durable (ACIDD) A few days after the historic success of the 21st Climate Conference (COP21) held in Paris in 2015, questions should be raised about the method used. Disruption of the climate concerns all of us owing to its consequences and because of the requisite actions. According to an IFOP public opinion poll, 86 % of the French are convinced of the need to change behavior patterns. Nonetheless, negotiations - now as in the past - took place backstage. What was totally forgotten is that the world climate conference should have been an exercise, based on social networks, in consultation and cooperation for actions on a planetary scale. Implementing and overseeing this agreement calls for involving all parties in all countries in ongoing consultation and cooperation.
Public participation in decision-making: An inevitable shift
By Pierre-Franck CHEVET
Ingénieur général des Mines
and Philippe DUCROCQ
Ingénieur général des Mines honoraire
Public participation in making decisions is no longer a technical matter but a political issue. The current system frustrates citizens, prime contractors and chief engineers. This incapacitating situation stems less from laws and regulations than from their conditions of application. At the origin of these difficulties: the prevailing mentality. Reforms are possible, but they entail placing confidence in citizens and accepting to take their opinions into account during decision-making.