lClimate, water, air, atmosphere, ocean and biodiversity are common goods that benefit everyone and whose preservation determines our ability to live in good health. For this reason, projects that affect the environment, whether it is the construction of a road, the expansion of a pigsty or the creation of a high-voltage line, should systematically be preceded by a debate with the populations concerned.
Already in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1972, the first United Nations conference on the environment spoke of the need for “active citizen participation” in order to “involving the public in environmental management and control”Twenty years later, the Rio Declaration recognized that “The best way to address environmental problems is to ensure the participation of all affected citizens, at the appropriate level”.
Since then, “environmental democracy” has continued to develop, in particular under the impetus of the Aarhus Convention, adopted in 1998, [entrée en vigueur en 2001] on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. The principle of public participation was enshrined in law in 1995 (Michel Barnier was then Minister of the Environment) and incorporated into the Environmental Charter in 2005. The scope of the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP), created in 1997 and becoming an independent administrative authority in 2002, has gradually been extended.
More and more projects have been subject to the public consultation regime and the jurisprudence of the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (CADA) has facilitated access to environmental information. These reforms have allowed the principle of public participation in environmental issues to be given substance, enshrining the right of every person to access information relating to the environment, to participate in the development of public decisions that affect the environment and to be able to challenge them before the judicial authority.
The fault of the neighbors.
This beautiful building has been seriously shaken by seven years of Macronism. It all started in 2018 in the name of a laudable objective: to develop wind energy to catch up with other European countries. The main obstacle to decarbonisation in the Jupiterian style is then obvious: the fault lies with the neighbours who multiply the appeals and delay the projects. Then, a first decree establishes an exceptional procedure by eliminating the double level of competence: it is no longer possible to appeal.
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