Reconcile the reindustrialization of the country and the preservation of nature. Now that the senatorial bill aimed at making the implementation of “zero net artificialisation” (ZAN) more flexible has been adopted in the National embly, it is the subtle balance that deputies and senators will have to find in the joint joint committee. .
Unsurprisingly, the deputies adopted the text Friday, May 23 without major modification. It was a question of responding to the outcry, on the part of local authorities, aroused by the decrees of application of the so-called “ZAN” provision of the Climate and Resilience Law of 2021. A solemn vote will take place on Tuesday, before an examination by a joint committee expected in the coming days. The government wants to enact the law by the end of July.
Preserving biodiversity
The main objectives of the ZAN, reducing concrete in order to preserve biodiversity, limiting heat islands and global warming or even reducing the impact of floods, are the subject of a broad consensus. But their concrete modalities had provoked the ire of the mayors especially in rural areas, which feared that new construction would be prohibited in the future.
Adopted by the Senate on March 16, the text introduces some modifications aimed at relaxing the rules of the ZAN, while maintaining the initial objective: to halve the artificialized surfaces over the decade (from 250,000 to 125,000 hectares, between 2021 and 2031), then fully offset them through renaturation by 2050.
Among the sensitive subjects: the question of taking into account “major projects of national scope” in the “rights to artificialize”. “It will be the subject of discussions in a joint committee with the Senate,” warned the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu.
In order not to penalize the regions where these major projects, linked to industrialization or railway infrastructure, for example, are numerous, the government has proposed to devote a lump sum of 15,000 hectares to it, taken from the envelope of the 125,000 hectares authorized, and then distribute the remaining 110,000 hectares. The deputies adopted this provision (the list of projects concerned will be defined later, by ministerial decree) despite the reluctance of part of the right – and of the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire.
Exclusion from ZAN
But the senators have probably not said their last word. Considering the government’s green industry bill in parallel, they even voted to exclude industrial projects from the ZAN’s overall objective. “For the moment we are in the standoff, but we hope to reach a compromise in CMP-ZAN”, underlines one in the entourage of Bruno Le Maire. “And in the event of an inconclusive CMP, we could seek a compromise with the senators in the ‘Green Industry’ text, which would reduce the exclusion of ZAN to industrial projects only”, explains the same source.
The other major innovation in the senatorial text, the “rural guarantee” granted to “sparsely populated and very sparsely populated” municipalities, was adopted by the deputies. A flexibility demanded by the mayors who feared that they could no longer develop. It plans to guarantee them a surface area of one hectare to be artificialized, provided that they have registered the constructions planned in an urban planning document before August 22, 2026. The municipalities will be able to pool this hectare between them.