Environmental risk policies

The environmental policies that developed in the second half of the 20th century addressed the issue of risks in light of major industrial and ecological accidents. In France, public management policies were initially structured around the notion of “major risks,” which was later associated with the concept of “environmental risk.” The Institute's work is part of this approach.

The slow emergence of environmental issues since the 19th century accelerated in the mid-20th century. The 1960s saw the growth of a fundamental cultural movement in industrialized countries that brought environmental concerns to the forefront. Environmental issues thus entered the realm of public policy.
The first public policy responses to this movement focused on two aspects: protecting nature from the exploitation of its resources by humans; and combating pollution caused by human activities, mainly industrial (air and water pollution, noise and odor pollution, accidents such as fires and explosions, etc.). In the latter context, the concept of the environment, taken in its broadest sense, is not focused on the preservation of natural environments; it also encompasses the well-being and health of populations and the integrity of material goods.
The management of risks related to environmental damage is inextricably linked to the history of industrial disasters that marked the contemporary era between the 1970s and 1990s. For example, the release of a toxic substance (dioxin cloud) from a chemical plant in Seveso, Italy, prompted the European Union to adopt regulations in 1982 on the control of major accident hazards (the “Seveso Directive”).

Managing “major risks”

In France, a Ministry of the Environment was created in 1971 to manage this new area of public policy. Its risk management policy was initially based in the late 1970s and early 1980s on the concept of “major technological risk” (work by sociologist P. Lagadec), a term that evolved into “major risk” in the 1990s. At the same time, the concept of “risk to the environment” developed, which was formalized and generalized in the early 2000s as the concept of “environmental risk.”

Major risk is defined as “the possibility of a natural or man-made event whose effects may affect a large number of people, cause significant damage and exceed the response capabilities of society.”

This type of risk is characterized by low frequency (or probability) and high severity (many victims, significant damage to property and the natural environment).

Technological risks and occupational risks

The occupational risks to which workers are exposed are part of the risks associated with industrial activities in the same way as technological risks; the two approaches are complementary. In the first case, we deal with the risk and its consequences within the facility (the risk concerns employees, equipment, and the “workstation”). In the second case, the focus is on the risk and its consequences outside the facility (on local residents, homes, and the surrounding natural environment). Occupational risks are governed by the Labor Code. In France, major industrial risk only takes into account issues outside the site, which is not the case at the European level.

Natural hazards and major technological risks

The French approach to major risk management developed by the Ministry of the Environment targets two main types of risk:

> Major natural hazards are threats resulting from geological phenomena (earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.) or atmospheric phenomena (cyclones, storms, etc.) capable of causing significant damage to people, property, or the environment.

  • floods
  • earthquakes
  • volcanic eruptions
  • land movements (coastal erosion, cave-ins, mudslides, rock slides, etc.)
  • avalanches
  • forest fires
  • storms and cyclones (for overseas departments)

> Major technological risk, caused by human activity, is the threat of a large-scale event linked to the handling, storage or transport of hazardous substances, with serious immediate or delayed consequences for humans and the environment.

  • nuclear risk
  • industrial risk (mainly caused by the use of chemicals)
  • the risk of transporting hazardous materials (TMD)
  • damage risk

INERIS's missions mainly focus on two aspects of major technological risk: industrial risk and the transport of hazardous materials. The Institute's expertise in ground movement risks (cavity collapse) is used in both natural risk prevention and technological risk prevention (underground activities).

What about mining and post-mining risks?

Mining and post-mining risks are major risks similar to natural and technological risks, as they can cause ground movements or dangerous phenomena (explosions, fires, gas emissions, etc.), but also have an impact on human health and ecosystems (pollution). Historically, mining-related risks have long been subject to specific regulations (the Mining Code), which are separate from those governing natural cavities and quarries and consistent with legislation on other major risks. These regulations, which date back to the 19th century, are the result of a special legal status: as a strategic national resource, underground resources belong to the State and not to the landowner. Today, this regulatory framework is evolving with the emergence of new uses for the subsoil, particularly in connection with the energy transition (geothermal energy, energy storage, etc.). A major overhaul of the Mining Code began in 2010 with the aim of bringing the legal regime for former mining sites into line with that for other extractive activities, which is governed by the Environment Code. While in France and much of Europe, risk management by public policy has focused on the “post-mining” dimension, new energy sovereignty issues linked to the exploitation of mineral resources (mainly metals) to develop low-carbon industries (electrochemical energy storage, etc.) have reignited the debate on the revival of mining activity.

Environmental risk: the challenge of ecological and health impacts

Environmental risk introduces a different logic into public policy than that underlying the concept of major risk. Major risk structures management around the source of the risk, i.e., the dangerous event that may occur.

The concept of environmental risk is based on an approach structured around potential impacts, with a corollary emphasis on remediation, which until now has been virtually absent from management approaches. The current approach to public risk management is based on the “assess, reduce, compensate” doctrine for impacts on the environment. Published in 2012, this doctrine aims to structure the consideration of the environment in the design of plans, programs, or projects for land use or economic development.

Environmental risk comprises two distinct types of risk:

  • environmental risk in the strict sense of “ecosystems,” which harms the natural environment (flora and fauna) and biodiversity due to the presence of hazardous substances in the air, water, or soil;
  • the risk to the health of human populations potentially exposed to pollutants in their everyday environment. This aspect of health risks is referred to as “environmental health.”

Today, “environmental risks” tend to refer to all risks related to environmental damage, combining and harmonizing major risks with health and ecological risks.

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