Health & environment

After ordering the French State in 2017 to comply with air quality standards, and in 2021 to pay a penalty payment of €10 million for the period from January 11 to July 11, 2021, the Conseil d’Etat (French Administrative Supreme Court) ordered it to pay two new penalty payments of €10 million each for the two periods from July 2021 to January 2022 and from January 2022 to July 2022 for the persistent breach of the authorized nitrogen dioxide concentration limit.

In a decision issued on February 25, 2022, the Conseil d’Etat (French Administrative Supreme Court) validated the derogation allowing the use of sugar beet seeds treated with neonicotinoids.

It dismissed the application filed by four associations (Agir pour l’environnement, the Confédération paysanne, the Fédération nature et progrès and the Fédération française des apiculteurs professionnels) for an interim judgment to suspend a Ministerial Order dated January 31, 2022 that provided for this derogation.

The 2021 Glasgow Climate Change Conference or COP26, organized by the United Nations, took place from November 1 to 13, 2021 in Glasgow (United Kingdom) as it had to be postponed for one year due to the COVID-19 health crisis.

The COP26 resulted, on November 13, in the adoption of the “Glasgow Climate Pact”, which notably allows to finalize the rules of application of the Paris Agreement but falls short of the ambitions that had been initially set.

For the first time, on October 14, 2021, the Paris Administrative Court ordered the French State to repair the consequences of its failure to combat climate change.

The Court ordered that the overrun of the greenhouse gas emissions cap set by the first carbon budget (2015-2018) be compensated by December 31, 2022 at the latest.

As people’s awareness of global warming is growing and the struggle to preserve the environment and biodiversity is intensifying, the French Minister of Justice has adopted a circular setting out the principles and objectives to be pursued in the prevention and punishment of environmental crimes.

Companies placing hazardous mixtures on the market have to submit information about these mixtures to specific bodies appointed by European Union Member States. Poison centers use this information to give medical advice in case of an emergency.

The notification requirement, based on Annex VIII to the Classification, Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation, applies from 1 January 2021.