French environment minister quits after parliament approves bee-harming pesticide use, citing broken government promises.
PARIS: France’s environment minister said on Wednesday she would “submit her resignation to the president today,” after lawmakers approved a bill allowing bee-harming pesticides to come back into use.
“Contrary to the commitments that had been made to me, the government prevented any debate on the removal of this measure,” Monique Barbut said in a statement posted on LinkedIn.
She said that the reversal was “one environmental setback too many.”
Barbut previously headed WWF France after serving as executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
“Politics is not my world, and if this is what politics is about, it definitely never will be,” said Barbut.
On Tuesday, parliament approved an agriculture bill reintroducing two pesticides critics say harm bees.
The legislation gives France’s health and safety agency, Anses, the authority to conditionally authorise the use of acetamiprid and flupyradifurone.
Proponents say French sugar beet, apple and hazelnut farmers need the insecticides — forbidden in France since 2018 and 2019 respectively — to help them compete with their European counterparts.
The pesticides are allowed in the European Union, but individual countries can limit their use.
Opponents argue they are dangerous to bees and human health.
“In 2016, France chose to ban acetamiprid in the name of the precautionary principle, based on the scientific evidence available at the time,” Barbut said.
“Ten years later, far from dispelling concerns, scientific studies continue to raise doubts about its effects on human health and the environment.”
The vote came after the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest court, last year struck down a provision in another bill trying to reintroduce acetamiprid, saying it posed risks to human health, after more than two million people signed a petition against it.
