Friends of the Earth – France

• Method of production and sustainable consumption

This campaign was launched in 2011 around the program “One Planet Only” (“Une seule planète”) with the Research and Information Centre for Development (CRID - Centre de Recherche et d’Information pour le Développement) to raise awareness on the stakes of a sustainable management of natural resources incorporating the limits defined by the ecological space. Friends of the Earth has actively participated in this program.

As part of this thematic, the report “Overconsumption, a threat to water” (Surconsommation, une menace sur l'eau) was done in 2011 : it highlights the water footprint of consumption, that is to say the volume of water needed for the production of goods that people consume (for example a T-shirt requires 2,700 litres of water).

Another report “Europe, dependent on the lands of others” (L'Europe, dépendante des terres des autres) focuses on the use of lands. The report shows, for the first time, that 60% of the land used to supply the European demand for agricultural and forestry products are located outside the continent. These lands are not only used for food, meat production or fibres needed for the textile sector, but also for the growing demand for biofuels.

• Planned obsolescence

With the report “Planned Obsolescence” (L'obsolescence programmée) issued in 2010, Friends of the Earth have focused on the reduction of the amount of waste generated by electrical and electronic equipment. With regard to producers, the association argues the need to sell products which are more robust, repairable, and durable, and fights for an extension of the warranty period from 2 to 10 years. With regard to consumers, the association wants to give people a sense of responsibility by showing a behind the scenes view of the 21st century consumer society. Friends of the Earth have also taken part in the working group of French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME - Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie) on the lifetime of products.

• Nuclear power phase-out: Friends of the Earth have been long-time campaigners against nuclear power. At the first international meeting of the different groups in Rambouillet (near Paris), a moratorium was demanded on the operation of nuclear power plants. Friends of the Earth went by boat to the Moruroa atoll to prevent nuclear testing, atmospheric at that time.

The association asserts that since 1957 the nuclear power industry has benefitted from a quasi-exemption of civil responsibility by the manufacturers and the operators, with no insurance company being willing to accept the risks. Demands concerning nuclear power are the immediate closure of nuclear power plants, the withdrawal of nuclear power in France within one or two quinquennats (five-year term served by each President of France), stopping any use of depleted uranium in weapons and consumer goods or equipment and a real logic in public service and not financial speculation on electricity.

• Tar sands: in the context of the depletion of conventional oil reserves, since 2001 Friends of the Earth have been denouncing companies that invest more and more in unconventional hydrocarbon sources, such as tar sands. Friends of the Earth mainly denounced the French company Total S.A., whose principal operations are located in the province of Alberta in Canada. Total is also interested in the exploitation of large oilfields in Madagascar, about which Friends of the Earth issued a report “Madagascar: a new Eldorado for mining and oil companies” (Madagascar: nouvel eldorado des compagnies minières et pétrolières) in November 2012.
• Shale gas has grown considerably during the last decade in the United States and Canada. In France, companies such as Schuepbach Energy, GDF Suez, Total and Devon Energy obtained three exploration permits in March 2010 (permits so-called "Montelimar", "Nant" and "Villeneuve de Berg") for a total area of 9672 km2, in the departments of Ardèche, Drôme, Lozère, Hérault, Gard and Vaucluse. Other permits are currently under investigation in Provence and Picardy. Friends of the Earth assert that shale gas is often presented by the industry as part of the natural gas reserves, which are qualified as “clean fossil fuels”. However, even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States or the Directorate General for Energy and Raw Materials (DGEMP - Direction Générale de l'Energie et des Matières Premières, part of the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, has reported significant environmental impacts in its “Annual Report on the oil and gas industry in 2009”.

Friends of the Earth campaigns for financial actors take into account their impacts on the environment and people.

• International financial institutions: Friends of the Earth have run an international campaign “Free us from fossil fuels!” against financial support for fossil energy projects from the World Bank. The association campaigns for all French funding in fossil energy be stopped, and for French activities be refocused to support renewable energy and efficient energy.

Friends of the Earth have also continued their campaign against the European Investment Bank (EIB), the public bank of the European Union, which is a stakeholder in several mining projects in Africa. Following this, financing was halted of the Mopani Copper Mine project, where the EIB announced that it would no longer fund the projects of the company Glencore AG until such time as the results of an internal inquiry invalidate serious charges brought against the Swiss multinational. The French TV channel France 5 broadcast a documentary on the case “Zambia: who benefits from the copper?” (Zambie: à qui profite le cuivre?).

• Private banks: In a campaign concerning private banks and COFACE, Friends of the Earth questioned investments by the banks in nuclear power and their indirect contributions to the climate change. The actions carried out were the distribution of a parodical newspaper “Nuclear financial times” in front of the OECD headquarters in Paris; the campaign “Own the banks!” (“À nous les banques!”) in partnership with the ATTAC organisation, in which the association questions the ten major French banks on order to assess their social, environmental and economic impacts; the publication of the report “Banks under citizen pressure: time to give explanations” (Les banques sous pression citoyenne: l'heure de rendre des comptes).
• Corporate social and environmental responsibility: Friends of the Earth claim that the CSR voluntary approach has failed, and campaign for restrictive legal approach concerning the social and environmental impact of multinational corporations, particularly in the Global South where they are often present and very active. The group acts through the CRAD40 campaign and the Pinocchio Prizes.

CRAD40: Friends of the Earth led a campaign “Let's drop the masks of Crad 40” (Faisons tomber les masques du Crad 40) to demand a law to make corporate parent companies legally responsible for the activities of their subsidiaries abroad. This campaign aims to get a petition signed and to call on French deputies to strengthen the legal framework of multinational companies.

Pinocchio prizes: since 2008, the Pinocchio prizes for sustainable development aim to illustrate and denounce the negative impact of some French companies, in total contradiction with the concept of sustainable development they extensively use.