CSR News – December 5, 2025: Climate, Pesticides and Transition

Home Insurance Faces Rising Climate Risks

• The consumer association UFC–Que Choisir published a study highlighting the rise in climate-related damages and a fivefold increase in disputes between policyholders and insurance companies in France between 2023 and 2024.
• The surge in litigation has revealed major difficulties: higher deductibles, contractual exclusions, longer compensation delays and reduced access to affordable insurance in high-risk areas.
• This situation has prompted calls to require insurers to guarantee coverage for all households in order to preserve the principle of mutualisation in a context of accelerating climate impacts.

Source: Reporterre – “Aléas climatiques : vers des territoires ‘potentiellement inassurables’”

France at the Centre of an Illegal Export Scandal for Banned Pesticides

• In 2024, France exported 6,620 tonnes of pesticides banned for their harmful impacts on health and the environment, a practice revealed by Swiss NGO Public Eye through an interactive map published on 1 December 2025.
• These substances were shipped to around thirty countries despite the 2022 Egalim law prohibiting such exports, involving companies such as Corteva, Gowan and BASF, while other European countries were also documented exporting similar products.
• This situation highlights the regulatory challenge of enforcing bans and the persistent gap with the European Commission’s commitments to end this practice.

Source: Reporterre – “La France a exporté 6 620 tonnes de pesticides interdits en 2024”

EU Faces Urgent Need to Secure Critical Raw Materials

• On 3 December, the European Commission presented proposals to reduce the EU’s dependence on China for critical raw materials, as Beijing had recently restricted exports of essential resources such as gallium, tungsten and rare earths.
• This situation provoked concern among European industries, which responded with temporary production line shutdowns and alarmed statements from business leaders.
• The EU’s goal is to strengthen industrial sovereignty and secure long-term access to strategic supplies.

Source: Le Monde – “Terres rares : Bruxelles passe à l’offensive pour se libérer de la dépendance chinoise”

EU Commits €5.2 Billion to Industrial Decarbonisation

• The European Commission launched a €5.2 billion investment plan funded through the Innovation Fund (from the EU Emissions Trading System), allocated to net-zero technologies, renewable hydrogen and decarbonising industrial heat.
• This funding aims to accelerate adoption of high-impact emissions-reduction solutions and strengthen industrial competitiveness, including dedicated mechanisms for SMEs and the maritime and aviation sectors.
• The initiative seeks to consolidate Europe’s technological leadership while speeding up environmental transformation toward carbon neutrality.

Source: ESG Today – “EU Commits More than €5 Billion to Net Zero Tech, Hydrogen, Industrial Decarbonization Projects”

Unprecedented Parliamentary Debate on the Duplomb Law and Neonicotinoids

• On 7 January 2026, the National Assembly will hold an unprecedented debate under the Fifth Republic on the petition against the Duplomb law, which gathered 2.13 million signatures and triggered significant civil-society mobilisation.
• This half-day debate, without a vote, will highlight concerns related to weakened environmental standards, the ban on neonicotinoids, and participatory democracy.
• The parliamentary session could mark the beginning of changes in citizen-consultation mechanisms and petition rights in France.

Source: Vert le Média – “Le débat sur la pétition contre la loi Duplomb aura lieu… que peut-il se passer ?”

Fast Fashion: The Fight Against Shein at the Centre of a Legislative Clash

• On 27 November 2025, the Stop Fast Fashion coalition — including Les Amis de la Terre and Zero Waste — projected testimonies and faces of exploited textile workers in central Paris as Shein opened its first physical store in France.
• Reported working conditions included high exposure to toxic substances, extremely low wages and employment of very young workers, in a sector responsible for 10% of global greenhouse-gas emissions.
• This mobilisation accompanied the parliamentary process of the anti-fast-fashion law, aiming at regulatory change and highlighting the risk of excluding European brands from the new requirements.

Source: Reporterre – “Ouvrières du textile exploitées : des associations affichent leurs témoignages dans le centre de Paris”

Cyril Dion Calls for a Unified Ecological Strategy

• Cyril Dion, director of Demain, gave a mixed review for the film’s tenth anniversary, recalling that despite some concrete advances such as reduced air pollution in Paris, most of the ecological alternatives showcased have not scaled, and only a small proportion of the Climate Citizens’ Convention proposals were adopted.
• He emphasised that lack of strategic cohesion, the influence of economic elites, media concentration and difficulty mobilising wider audiences hinder ecological transformation in France.
• Faced with these obstacles, he advocated creating a transversal organisation combining lobbying, strategic communication and mass mobilisation to strengthen democratic power and foster inclusive culture for systemic change.

Source: Reporterre – “Cyril Dion : ‘Il manque une stratégie au mouvement écologiste’”

IPCC Faces Major Political Attacks and Obstacles

• The IPCC gathered 568 authors in Saint-Denis to launch a new cycle of work on the causes, consequences and responses to global warming, including the study of exceeding the +1.5°C threshold.
• The meeting occurred amid both political support and criticism, financial disengagement and publication blockages, weakening the ability to produce updated reports ahead of the next Paris Agreement stocktake.
• This work aims to provide recent, validated scientific data essential for designing climate policies grounded in the most advanced state of knowledge.

Source: Vert le Média – “À Saint-Denis, le Giec lance son prochain rapport…”

Gender Inequalities: The Invisible Weight of Ecological Labour

• In 2025, according to INSEE and the newsletter Les Glorieuses, women in France began “working for free” from 10 November at 11:31 a.m. due to a 14.2% average gender pay gap for equal work time, rising to 22.2% when including part-time hours.
• Women also bore the majority of unpaid domestic and parental work, representing 64% of domestic time and 70% of parental time.
• This imbalance also extends to “sustainability labour” — ecological efforts within households — reinforcing inequalities across social and economic spheres.

Source: Le Monde – “Dans les foyers, le ‘travail de durabilité’ est majoritairement exercé par les femmes”

New Legal Action Against the French State for Climate Delay

• On 4 December, the NGO Notre Affaire à Tous petitioned the Council of State, accusing the French government of failing to meet its “fair share” in global greenhouse-gas reduction.
• The appeal highlights France’s continued delay in meeting its climate commitments and stresses the importance of fairness as a legal obligation for companies and institutions.
• This fourth climate-related action seeks to embed the principle of equity in national climate policy over the long term.

Source: Le Monde – “Climat : la France attaquée en justice pour ne pas faire sa ‘part juste’…”

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