CSR News – January 9, 2026: Climate Policy, AI and Regulation

2025: A Year Marked by Environmental Progress

• In 2025, France and the international community recorded five major environmental advances, including the adoption of an anti-PFAS law, the restoration of protected animal species, renewable energy overtaking coal in global electricity generation, the upcoming entry into force of the UN High Seas Treaty, and the censorship of legislation harmful to the environment.
• These advances helped slow certain environmental rollbacks and strengthen ecosystem protection, despite a context shaped by multiple environmental and social crises.
• Together, these developments aim at a deep transformation of the regulatory framework and environmental governance at both national and international levels.

Source: Reporterre – “PFAS, jackals, oceans… five reasons to be glad about 2025”

A Government Still in Crisis on Environmental Issues

• In 2025, several members of the French government defended controversial ecological decisions and announcements, relating to the reauthorisation of acetamiprid, ocean protection and food sovereignty.
• Media and parliamentary investigations revealed practices of concealment, manipulation and misleading justifications, notably in the management of Nestlé’s pollution and police violence at Sainte-Soline.
• These events illustrated an overall environmental rollback and raised questions about the sincerity of the executive’s regulatory and political commitments.

Source: Reporterre – “Pesticides, oceans… five government lies about ecology in 2025”

Environmental Measures in 2026: Between Ambition, Opposition and Delays

• On January 1, 2026, several environmental measures came into force in France, changing energy taxation, restricting access to MaPrimeRénov’, banning certain PFAS-containing products, introducing a recycling bonus for plastic producers, and easing authorisation for wolf culling.
• These measures directly affected costs for households and businesses, limited renovation subsidies, and triggered changes in the plastics industry and biodiversity management.
• Overall, these provisions aim at regulatory and economic transformation, shaped by trade-offs between environmental transition, social issues and technical constraints.

Source: Vert le Média – “Electricity bills, PFAS, wolf culling… what changes for ecology on January 1, 2026”

A Controversial Rise of Artificial Intelligence

• The widespread deployment of artificial intelligence mobilised significant energy and water resources, causing a sharp rise in electricity consumption, CO₂ emissions and land artificialisation for data centres in France and internationally.
• This dynamic increased risks of local energy shortages, weakened the transition to renewable energy, and exposed society to a concentration of technological power in private hands.
• In 2025, researchers, NGOs and associations called for a moratorium and democratic governance to address these challenges.

Source: Reporterre – “10 key facts to survive Christmas debates on artificial intelligence”

First Swiss Climate Lawsuit Against Holcim Accepted by a Court

• On December 22, 2025, the cantonal court of Zug in Switzerland ruled admissible a lawsuit filed by four residents of the Indonesian island of Pari, supported by NGOs, against Holcim, accused of contributing through its CO₂ emissions to rising sea levels threatening their territory.
• This unprecedented decision exposed companies to direct legal risk linked to their industrial emissions, beyond purely financial or reputational issues.
• It marked a major shift by expanding climate litigation to the cement industry, allowing courts to act alongside climate policies.

Source: Novethic – “Climate lawsuit against Holcim: a warning signal for the cement industry”

Debate Intensifies Over Banning Plastic Decorative Snow

• MP Philippe Bolo submitted a bill to the French National Assembly seeking to ban plastic decorative snow containing synthetic polymer microparticles from 2027, due to its inevitable dispersion into the environment.
• Widely sold in supermarkets and online platforms, the product has been identified as a hard-to-collect source of microplastics, highlighting inconsistencies between existing regulation and its availability.
• The legislative initiative aims to limit microplastic pollution in domestic and outdoor environments, in the name of regulatory coherence and pollution reduction.

Source: Reporterre – “Microplastics under the Christmas tree: decorative fake snow soon to be banned?”

Water Catchment Pollution in France: A Stalemate Between Local Authorities and Farmers

• The Amorce network, representing local authorities engaged in ecological transition, published an open letter warning about alarming pollution of drinking water catchments in France and called for faster dialogue with stakeholders, particularly in agriculture.
• The situation highlighted major health risks and the potential closure of many catchments within ten years, worsened by agricultural organisations leaving the national catchment working group and the postponement of a regulatory decree.
• Preventing pollution upstream was emphasised as a cost-effective solution, with the alert aiming to restart negotiations to secure drinking water and reconcile competing interests.

Source: Le Monde – “Pesticides: local authorities denounce stalled negotiations over protecting drinking water catchments”

The Regenerative Economy Is Convincing More and More Companies

• The regenerative economy, presented by Eric Duverger and Sarah Dubreil, aims to restore the health of people, societies and ecosystems by abandoning economic activities incompatible with planetary boundaries and prioritising local anchoring and collective governance.
• The model emphasises fair value sharing, inequality reduction, cross-sector cooperation and deep corporate culture change to avoid “regenwashing”.
• Drawing on decades of research, more than 100 French companies have already joined this movement, which seeks social reconciliation and lasting structural change in the economic fabric.

Source: Vert le Média – “Eric Duverger, Sarah Dubreil: ‘The regenerative economy is a societal and reconciliation project’”

Coastal Landfills in France: Promises and Cleanup at a Standstill

• France has identified between 1,000 and 2,000 coastal landfills, often abandoned and left without proper treatment, where toxic waste dispersion driven by climate change has polluted beaches, marine ecosystems and inhabited areas.
• Despite a 2022 presidential announcement of a €30 million annual cleanup plan until 2032, only €52.5 million of the €120 million planned had been disbursed by the end of 2025, limiting remediation to four sites.
• This situation jeopardises the goal of fully resolving the issue by the end of the decade due to budgetary and regulatory constraints.

Source: Reporterre – “Coastal landfills, the time bombs Macron promised to deal with”

Parcel Lockers: An Unregulated Expansion Threatens Local Shops

• The rapid and unregulated installation of thousands of parcel lockers, mainly by Mondial Relay as well as Amazon, Vinted Go and AliExpress, has created tensions in several French municipalities, where residents, elected officials and shopkeepers fear revenue losses for local businesses.
• This expansion, driven by the absence of a regulatory framework and the removal of traditional relay points, has disrupted local economic activity and destabilised commercial planning in city centres.
• In response, many elected officials have called for legislation to regulate installations, define financial compensation and preserve territorial cohesion.

Source: Le Monde – “MP Mélanie Thomin: ‘The unregulated expansion of lockers is unbalancing commercial planning in our towns’”