A land full of humus and life is a treasure. There are dozens of vertebrate, earthworm, mite and insect species, fungi by hundreds and bacteria by thousands.
It is also a ” carbon sink “: In France, the first 30 centimeters of soil thickness store 3 to 4 billion tonnes of CO2. Three times more than the wood from our forests.
Urban, commercial, (aero-) port, rail or road, industrial, military or mining wastelands exist and could be reused to meet 4 ?? Goals. pic.twitter.com/DBRaYkcPKj
– Prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Rhône region (@prefetrhone) December 22, 2020
Soils could do even better to absorb some of the 465 million tonnes of CO2 that the French emit each year (out of 4 billion for the whole planet). If France made better use of farming lands Depleted by too much plowing and chemistry, they could offset 7% of our greenhouse gas emissions, according to an INRA study. Not neutral if we no longer want to release carbon into the atmosphere at all in 2050, as promised in the Paris agreement.
In 2019, urbanization engulfed 24,000 ha
This supposes not only to preserve but also to increase the climatic efficiency of our current soils, hedges and forests. We are far from it. The French agricultural area increased from 63% of the territory in 1950 to 52% in 2018. Every year until the beginning of the 2000s, France swallowed up more than 30,000 ha of natural, agricultural or forest areas. This voracity fell to 22,000 ha in 2015. But it started to rise again in 2019, with 24,000 ha, the equivalent of the city of Marseille. The worst part is that 70% of it is good land, according to a 2017 study. A shame when the consumer is in favor of organic and local productions, which, by the Food Law, will have to provide part of the menu. school canteens.
There is cause for concern, warned the Court of Auditors in July: a third of farmers will retire by 2023. However, agricultural land can see its value multiplied between 100 and 200 if it becomes constructible. It suffices for this that the elected representatives of the municipalities or intercommunalities modify the local urban plans.
There are obstacles: public inquiries, right of first refusal of the Land Development and Rural Establishment Companies (Safer) etc. Their lack of efficiency had motivated the project of a new land law. But the Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, buried her in October because of the saturation of the parliamentary calendar.
Achieve zero soil artificialization
In the meantime, one of the solutions promoted by the State is to reconvert urban and industrial wasteland. From service stations to abandoned mines, barracks to abandoned factories, they represent up to 150,000 ha unused. A call for tenders worth 300 million euros has just been launched by the State. Responsibility for the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe) to help municipalities and developers to clean up and give a second life to these wastelands, either to build there, or to return them to nature.
But nothing obliges mayors to tackle these complicated sites, often surrounded by local residents, when urbanizing a few fields makes dozens of future owners happy and a seller’s fortune. The 2018 Hulot plan set the objective of achieving “zero net artificialization” by 2050. But this is only a wish.
The Citizens’ Convention has called for drastic measures. We will see in January what will remain in the law inspired by its 146 measures, which Emmanuel Macron and the Castex government are already accused of wanting to water down.
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