Michel Barnier wants to exclude the industry from the “zero net artificialization” system for five years

This text from the Climate and Resilience law has continued to be contested by local elected officials and business leaders.

Boost industrial employment… at the risk of neglecting the environment. Prime Minister Michel Barnier said on Friday, November 29, “favorable to exempting industry” of the “zero net artificialization” of soils (ZAN) system “for a period of five years”as part of simplification measures to support this economic sector.

The ZAN system aims to reduce or compensate for the concreting of unbuilt land. The Climate and Resilience law, resulting from the work of the Citizens' Convention and voted in 2021, initially set an objective of “zero net land artificialization” in 2050, with the intermediate step of halving the consumption of natural, agricultural and forestry spaces by 2031. But the text has continued to be contested by local elected officials and business leaders since .

At the Ministry of Industry, it is emphasized that the industrial sector “represents a very limited part of the land (5% of the total)” and that “these rules can weaken us in the international competition to attract investments”.