The food chain in France, from production to plate, is officially estimated to account for around 22% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, while supermarkets are estimated to account for about 70% of all food purchases. Réseau Climat Action (RCA), the French branch of the Climate Action Network, the umbrella group for hundreds of environmental protection NGOs, has completed a study of the practices of the major supermarket chains with regard to their contribution to gas emissions, and efforts to reduce them, and this month published its damning findings. Jade Bourgery reports.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which is currently holding its annual conference at Marseille in the south of France, has hit the headlines for its latest update on the number of animal species which face imminent extinction on the planet. But there are some experts who query whether the NGO's conserving strategy of preserving species in designated areas such as natural parks is the right one. Mediapart spoke with French geographer Estienne Rodary who argues that this modernist and colonial approach to the environment has become outdated in an inter-connected world. He says that the issues of biodiversity and climate change are interlinked and that when it comes to conserving nature the “carbon cost” of any policies needs to be taken into account. Amélie Poinssot reports.
French environmentalists took part in worldwide protests led by the 'Exctinction Rebellion' movement on Monday, blocking road traffic in Paris at and around the place du Châtelet in their second demonstration after the occupation of a shopping centre in the city on Saturday, and promised a series of further actions throughout the week both in the capital and around the country.
The Mer de Glace – the “sea of ice” – near the Alps’ highest summit, the Mont Blanc, has lost around 800 metres in length over the past 30 years in a stark example of the effects of global warming on the world's glaciers, the subject of a UN report due to be presented next week.
Palavas-les-Flots is a popular seaside resort in the Languedoc region of southern France, one of several built up during a government-driven programme launched in the 1960s to develop tourism along western Mediterranean seaboard. But the town, like others in the region, now faces future disaster from the slow but certain rise in the level of the sea and coastal erosion exacerbated by mass tourism. Mediapart environment correspondent Jade Lindgaard reports from Palavas-les-Flots.
