France: The Grenelle Environment Summit on its road

France?s new President is trying to put his promises (and his methods) into practice. Grenelle Environmental Summit started in July with negotiations seminars between NGOs, trade-unions, local/regional administrations and the corporate sector. The time allowed for delivery is, however, limited as the targets to be defined by stakeholder representatives must be presented at a meeting scheduled for the end of October. If they are not, the State will come to a decision for itself.

It is no accident that this summit is called Grenelle. The President has chosen this name to refer explicitly to the paramount social agreement come to in May 1968 that put an end to the political crisis of that period. The challenge now is to open a dialogue with the new ministry ? MEDAD – in charge of sustainable development, environment, energy, industrial safety, transport and infrastructure and territorial planning that is headed by Jean-Louis Borloo with the support of two junior ministers.

The workshops proposals must be finalized by the end of September. Interactive communication will occur through two means – at the inter-regional level with six meetings and through the internet to reach the general public. At the end of next October, the Grenelle summit needs to finalize negotiations.

Approximately 20 measures are expected from this round table. These must be approved by the majority of participants and be concrete and measurable. In the meantime, all ministries are looking to improve their carbon balance. Civil servants and entrepreneurs have been called upon to move around the approved national strategy for sustainable development.

This is the first time that regions, associations, NGOs and trade-unions are working together on environmental issues. This explains the relative consensus that has been built around this event and its principles.

Of course, the difficulty will be to create a new generation of social agreements based on independent studies, discussions, and the final acceptance of a single result. Let?s see whether this process may become a new French habit and one capable of producing mutual respect between all actors ?

www.ecologie.gouv.fr
www.agora-grenelle.fr