zadvabien-blog

[zadvabien-blog]

A hereditary infrastructure project, from a socialist initiative to a juridical quagmire

Historical overview

This infrastructure project has long been supported by the socialists. The idea of building a new international airport near to Nantes has emerged in the sixties, in a context of economic wealth also known as the golden thirties. At that time, France knew energetic independence thanks to new nuclear power plants and rulers were thinking of decentralization and economic development of the regions.

French decentralization and territorial development aims.

In 1965, the DATAR (Interministerial Commission of Land Planning and Regional Attractiveness) defined the metropolis balancing the Parisian hyper centralization, under which Nantes and Saint-Nazaire. Rulers dreamed of greatness for this area. From 1970, Notre Dame des Landes was taken on, as a flat, agricultural and less crowded countryside near to Nantes. One did not note the ecological importance of the wetlands that composed the site. One saw it also as a great basis for the Concorde.

The geography of the project

There was a will to transfer the Nantes-Atlantique airport to the North countryside of Nantes, about twenty kilometers from the city. In 1872, two years after the project was depicted by the senator and future mayor of Nantes Michel Chauty as the “aerian Rotterdam of Europe”, the local farmers created the Adeca (Association of defense of farmers affected by the airport project).

The statute of the litigious place

In 1974, the idea was revived as 1.300 hectares of the Notre Dame des Landes countryside became a so called “ZAD” (Zone d’Aménagement Différé or litteraly ‘Area of deferred planning’). The ZAD statute offers the area a protection against the use of the land in the time, whether it be construction or land consolidation, towards the works.

After the oil crisis, the project sinks in oblivion

Meanwhile, there has been the oil crisis of 1973, the arrival of TGV lines in the train station of Nantes… The French administration had to rationalize the State’s investment so that the project disappeared in the oblivion for twenty years and the ZAD turned to be a wasteland.

The project is brought up again with a territorial rebalancing

In 1999, with the Voynet Law in favor of a territorial rebalancing, the idea of a great airport for the West of France recurred. The town hall of Nantes wills it to be presented as a new project, even it is still the same as a matter of fact. The mayor and Nantes Metropole president of the time, the current French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault believed in this project. François Fillon, as the president of the regional council in 2000, also.

A quarrel with the civil society

Detractors, calling it “Ayraultport”, denounced the project as being a political aim to affix one’s name and pray the territory.

The common interest in the juridical decisions

After two years of public debate, a ministerial decree validated the project in October 2003. A public inquiry opened between 2006 and 2007. With time, the new airport should welcome nine millions of passengers and the cost is estimated to be around 581 million Euros. A Declaration of Public Utility (DUP in french) was signed in February 2008. It recognizes for ten years that a project has public benefits. It means that the DPU will elapse in February 2018. Nonetheless, if work site are not undertaken in the next five years, expropriations decrees for use in the public interest can be contested. This concerns some thirty people.

Contract with the construction company, Vinci & civil disobedience.

In 2010, the French State signed a construction and concession contract with Vinci for fifty-five years. The works should start in 2013. In parallel, the occupation of the ZAD (recalled Zone A Défendre) grow and State’s attempts to move out “zadistes” took place in violence. Therefore, in November 2012, Jean-Marc Ayrault as the French Prime minister decided to put the clearing for six months back and to create a “dialogue commission”. The “Airport of the Great West” was foreseen for 2017.

Juridical complications

The French government wanted then to wait for justice decisions before starting the work site. During the summer 2015, the Supreme Court lastly rejected the appeal in cassation against expropriation orders. The administrative tribunal of Nantes rejected the last pleas against the prefectoral decrees that allowed the works and that way, enabling to derogate from the Law on water and move the protected species.

A lire à voix haute : A COUR DE CASSATION, TROISIÈME CHAMBRE CIVILE, a rendu l'arrêt suivant :

Attendu que M. X... et M. Y... ont formé un pourvoi contre l'ordonnance d'expropriation du 18 janvier 2012 par laquelle le juge de l'expropriation du département de Loire-Atlantique a ordonné le transfert, au profit de la société concessionnaire "Aéroport du Grand-Ouest" agissant pour le compte de l'Etat, de la propriété de parcelles leur appartenant ; que par arrêt du 29 janvier 2013, la Cour de cassation a constaté que le premier moyen du pourvoi était devenu sans objet et sursis à statuer pour le surplus dans l'attente d'une décision irrévocable de la juridiction administrative saisie d'une demande d'annulation de l'arrêté de cessibilité ;

[…]

Attendu que l'ordonnance visant le registre d'enquête parcellaire et les conclusions du 24 janvier 2011 de la commission d'enquête, contenant son avis favorable et transmis au préfet le même jour, le moyen n'est pas fondé ;

PAR CES MOTIFS :  REJETTE le pourvoi ;

Political dissociation

Dissent under the François Hollande’s ministry team: Emmanuelle Cosse’s position or Segolène Royal’s.

Public consultation and recent evolutions

Local referendum in June 2016: only the inhabitants of the Department who could vote. In case of a “yes” victory, the airport could be built à act of consultation brought nothing. Approved with 55,17% of the Loire-Atlantique inhabitants.

In the beginning of November, the Nantes Administrative Court of Appel validated three decrees taken in December 2013 by the prefet of Loire-Atlantique and thus, did not follow the recommendations of the public rapporteur. These decrees were contested by the opponents.

An unclear future

The evacuation is now put back to an unclear future, as the French government invoques an outgoing litigation in the European Commission. This one reproaches to France to not the regulation concerning the accumulated effects of several work site as well as the disponibility of security forces during the state of emergency.

The two candidates running for president show reticence to the project. Marine Le Pen was against the project but wants to respect the outcome of the referendum of June 26th. Emmanuel Macron would nominate a mediator. 

Balance-sheet of the project

In fifty years, the project has changed of reasons, supporters, time. To some extent, rulers have increased awareness about environmental concern and socio-economic reality. Nowadays, the Airport of the Great West is regarded as one symbol of “useless and imposed big projects” that destroy agricultural and natural land.

The existing rules expected to be respected.

The four decrees related to the Law on water and the protected species.

In September 2016, the prefet made an order allowing the destruction of one protected species: the southwestern water vole. These order made in a first time the beginning of the works possible. The southwestern water vole is a rodent living along wetlands and rivers. It is entered in the national list of protected terrestrial mammals.

Environmental constraints are the compensatory measures the holders of the Airport of the Great West have to take. They need for instance to create ponds and achieve permanent grasslands. The French senate has also set in rule a commission that has to investigate on the reality of compensatory measures to biodiversity damage in major infrastructure projects. The case of Notre Dame des Landes constitutes one of the four projects studied by the commission which should give a report in April 2017 (not reachable for the moment).

Illustration: video concerning the compensatory measure to the southwestern vole.

[zadvabien-blog]

[zadvabien-blog]

Perspectives on airline traffic :

The airline traffic is intensifying over time in our globalized world because of trade traffic and passenger traffic. In the sector of the passenger traffic the numbers are very relevant. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) estimated that in 1950 there were a few million passengers and in 2014 there were 3,3 billion airline passengers. The predictions for 2030 are of 6 billion passengers per year. Perspectives for the future are always growing. In fact a study of Airbus shows that in 2014, there were 42 megalopolises able to welcome more than 10 000 passengers per day, and in 2034 predictions foresee megalopolises which would have an airport able to welcome 10 000 passengers. The reasons of this augmentation are the economic development of emerging countries and the emergence of low cost airline companies. Moreover, the transportation sector is the second cause of CO2 emissions just after electricity. In 2007, the level of emissions caused by transportation was 6 600 tons of CO2. International transport represents 15% of the global anthropological greenhouse gas emissions and in particular 23% of the global anthropological CO2 emissions.

Effects of greenhouse gas emissions

The principal effects of greenhouse gas emissions and the principle of radiation forcing are very important to understand. Firstly, the ground absorbs sunrays and sends them back as IR radiations. The presence of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere causes the reflection of those IR radiations back to the ground. This process makes the temperature of the ground of the planet increase, whose temperature would be under zero degrees without this reflection because of the greenhouse gas emissions. The water vapor H20, which is almost all of natural origin, is the main factor of greenhouse gas emissions. But CO2 has a relative power per molecule over the greenhouse gas effects. The main problem with CO2 is that it lingers in the atmosphere for a long period of time. That is why it is the CO2 which has been playing an increasingly bigger part in global warming since 1750. Each greenhouse gas is able to have a warming effect or a cooling effect. Those effects depend on the nature of the gas and on its interactions with other components in the air. The radiation forcing principle measures in watts per square meter and quantifies the radiations’ modifications due to greenhouse gas emissions with respect to a year of reference. The positive radiation forcing has a positive impact on global warming and the negative radiation forcing has a negative impact on global warming. The following graphic represents the radiation forcing of every kind of transport so the impact of each kind of transport over climate change. This study takes into account the nature of the greenhouse gas and the duration of the presence of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. In the field of transports, the road industry represents 10% of the global greenhouse gas emissions and the aviation industry represents 1% of the greenhouse gas emissions. But if we take into account the radiation forcing, the aviation industry does have a much bigger effect over climate change. The emission of greenhouse gas in altitude has a bigger impact over climate change because the composition of the atmosphere is different. The plane emits nitrogen oxide (N0x) at the border of the troposphere and of the stratosphere. This effect causes the formation of the ozone of the troposphere and the degradation of the methane (CH4). As such, the Kyoto Protocol doesn’t take into account the radiation forcing but just studies the effects of the six greenhouse gases. This is a limit of the study of the institutional way to fight the aviation impacts on Climat change. The level of emission of greenhouse gas is very relevant. A round-trip between Barcelona and Nantes-Atlantique emits 90 kilograms of CO2 per passenger. During a round-trip between Nantes-Atlantique and Marrakech a plane emits 364 kilograms of CO2 per passenger. This means that three round-trips between Nantes-Atlantique and Marrakech correspond to one ton of CO2 emissions. One ton of CO2 emissions represents the average annual emission of one French citizens for his car or for his heating if he lives in a house. The table above shows us that the number of passengers in the long-duration-flights has decreased by 66,4% but the number of passengers in the short-duration-flights has increased by 130,4%. The emissions of CO2 increased by 49,6% between 2000 and 2015. So the association between the intensification of the traffic in the airport of Nantes-Atlantique and the huge emissions caused by the flies passing by Nantes-Atlantique we can asked us the question if it would be relevant to build a new bigger airport and which in consequence produce more greenhouse gas emissions? Would it be possible to regulate the world airline traffic and more precisely the traffic of the airport of  Nantes Atlantique ? If not, could it be practicable to create the new airport but in a more responsible way in relation to climate change?

Scenarios on the progression of the airline sector:

On a global scale, it has been proved that the demand of the aviation sector is strongly depending on the economic environment because of the growth of the world BIP, liberalism and most of all globalization. Thus, the economic stage is controlling the demand over the aviation sector, which means that to predict the demand of the aviation sector in 2100, we would have to know the economic situation of 2100. The GIEC has proposed four different scenarios of the economical perspective for 2100: scenario A presents a world in which economic development is dominant whereas scenario B puts forward a world in which ecology is dominant. Following this, scenario 1 shows a world in which the emphasis is placed on globalization and scenario 2 imagines a world in which regional development is the main focus. So four different scenarios have been created: A1, A2, B1 and B2. The study CONSAVE, which was financed by the European Commission, shows the application of those scenarios to the aviation sector. The scenario A1 applied to the aviation sector would lead to unlimited use of the skies, in which the demand for air transport is very strong and would only be limited by infrastructure needs. Scenario A2 would imply a fractured world, in which a strong regionalization process has been achieved and in which international flights have been strongly reduced. The scenario B1 signifies for the aviation sector that the regulatory push and pull, in which the demand of the aviation sector is the same as in the A1 scenario but the emissions are in this scenario strongly regulated and controlled. Finally, the last scenario B2 corresponds to a more down to earth one vision which there is a total decoupling between air transport and BIP growth. We could easily achieve the A2 and B1 scenarios by taking into account the environmental factor.

The new airport in Nantes: an important issue with high economic stakes

To continue, it is unbelievable that the new airport can’t be created because it represents a huge economic issue and it is a real necessity to fight against the saturation of the Nantes-Atlantique airport. First of all, the Airport of Nantes Atlantique welcomed more than four million passengers in 2015, which is a huge number and shows us that it is indeed almost saturated. The demand is always increasing and the Consave study has proved that the demand will always be bigger in our globalized world. This saturation produces a physical saturation of parking spaces for example (the limit of three million spots having already been reached). The saturation produces an environmental saturation also linked to noise pollution. Saturation constitutes a huge issue and can be the cause behind closing an airport, in fact for example two old airports in Berlin have been closed because of this issue. The creation of the new airport constitutes an essential economic issue for two reasons, which show that its opening is a real necessity for the region. Firstly, the creation of the new airport holds high stakes for the management of the territory around Nantes. The airport would be able to welcome a massive tourist flow in order to respond to the bigger demand in the “Grand-Ouest” region because of the demographic progression, which is predicted to be of one million supplementary residents in 2030 on the Atlantic coast in France. So in this way the construction of the new airport is a necessity for the region. Moreover, it has the potential to offer 1,4 million employment opportunities in 175 000 businesses all less than about an hour away and three new commercial zones are going to be created less than 5 kilometers away from the airport. In consequence, we can imagine that the possibility for a company to extend its activity at the European level is very attractive and would have a significant economic impact. As such, the creation of the new airport is a key issue in improving the access of the “Grand Ouest” region to the European market, which would improve the economical standard of French local businesses and of the region in general. Through the COP 21 in Paris, major contributions have been made to limit greenhouse gas emission in the aviation industry. In order to limit the impacts of the aviation sector on climate change, the ICAO has set up the concept of the « panier de mesures ». This concept takes into account the fact that one isolated measure is not enough to achieve the goal of stabilising the emission of greenhouse gas. The goal is a neutral emissions rate in 2020. To achieve it, four levers have been set up in four different fields: technologies, exploitation, infrastructures and economic measures. First of all, it has been imposed that the environmental performance of planes has to be improved. Certification norms have been introduced to force the manufacturers of planes to include more modern technologies in their planes. The first norm was adopted by the «  Comité pour la Protection de l’Environnement en Aviation » (CAEP) in February 2016. Research in this field have allowed in fifty years a real contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, the consumption of fuel per passenger per kilometer and in consequence the greenhouse gas emissions associated to it have decreased by 75% in average. The aviation industry is the most polluting industry and the IATA estimated that the airline sector could achieve a neutral growth in carbon by 2020. The goal is to replace 27% of the planes through planes with new technologies until 2020 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 21%. Secondly, it has been decided that the consumption of fuel also has to be decreased. In Europe, the skies are shared to make airline roads more direct, especially by night. Measures have been applied to all stages of flight: on the ground in order to limit waiting time and during the flight to make the trip more direct. Moreover, the Air Transport Management (ATM) could make the infrastructures more efficient and produce a reduction of over 4% of the greenhouse gas emissions until 2020. Thirdly it has been set up that sustainable biofuels have to be developed in order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gas. An example of an initiative is the « Lab’line for the future », which used fuel from sugar fermentation to power regular flights between Paris and Toulouse. The technology could reduce the carbon print of a plane over 20% to 35% until 2020 in modifying its conception and in using different materials. In fact, the use of 5% of biofuels in the global fuel use in the world for the aviation could decrease by over 5% the greenhouses emissions of the aviation sector. Finally, it has been established that economic measures can be useful to fight the negative impacts of the aviation sector over the climate change. In fact, a compensation of the CO2 emissions, which surpass the level achieved in 2020, could be realized with the help of credits on the carbon market. In the European Union the ETS exchange system has been decided on October 4th 2013 with the goal of being adopted in 2016.

Conclusion :

To conclude, from an economic point of view it would be illogical not to create the new airport in Nantes because of the impact it would have on the region, which could benefit greatly from such an opening to the European market. An essential factor to take into account in this perspective is the study of the « green evolution » of the aviation sector. All the norms that have been created added to the emergence of modern technologies are relevant to understand that political decision-makers do have the choice to create this new airport in a such a way that it will only have a relative impact on climate change.

[zadvabien-blog]

The construction of the airport in Notre Dame-des-Landes would take place on the memory of a wetland

What is a wetland?

The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines wetlands as “areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season. Water saturation (hydrology) largely determines how the soil develops and the types of plant and animal communities living in and on the soil. Wetlands may support both aquatic and terrestrial species. The prolonged presence of water creates conditions that favor the growth of specially adapted plants (hydrophytes) and promote the development of characteristic wetland (hydric) soils.

Wetlands vary widely because of regional and local differences in soils, topography, climate, hydrology, water chemistry, vegetation and other factors, including human disturbance. Indeed, wetlands are found from the tundra to the tropics and on every continent except Antarctica. Two general categories of wetlands are recognized: coastal or tidal wetlands and inland or non-tidal wetlands.”

Hence there can be a wetland without a waterway or water retention. It is a zone of synthesis between water and solid ground (ecotone).

Wetlands around Notre Dame-des-Landes?

To build an airport, the wetlands have to be dried up. They constitute a large part of the site where the airport should be built. It is a natural zone of ecological, faunistic and floristic interest (Zone naturelle d’Intérêt écologique, Faunistique et Floristique (ZNIEFF)) called Woods: heaths and hedges south west of Notre Dame-des-Landes.

Although the zone is identified, it is not legally protected. Indeed, there is an ambiguous behavior concerning wetlands. Their existence and importance is recognized, but in practice they are not properly protected.

The article 2 of the Loi sur l’eau du 3 janvier 1992 (law on water) recognizes the existence of wetlands and defines them as “Lands, exploited or not, usually flooded or filled with fresh, saline or brackish water, permanently or temporarily; Vegetation, where it exists, is dominated by hygrophilic plants for at least part of the year“ (“terrains, exploités ou non, habituellement inondés ou gorgés d'eau douce, salée ou saumâtre de façon permanente ou temporaire; la végétation, quand elle existe, y est dominée par des plantes hygrophiles pendant au moins une partie de l'année;”)

The french state also recognize on the website of the ministry of environment, energy and seas that “since the beginning of the XXth century, we witnessed the disparition of 67% of wetlands (half of which between 1960 and 1990). It is due to three factors: the intensification of agricultural practices, ill-adapted hydraulic programs and the stress caused by urbanization and transport infrastructures.”

In this way, the french states recognizes the existence and the importance of the protection of wetlands, but supports the airport project.

What is the importance of wetlands in the context of global warming?

Global warming has a substantial impact on wetlands and wetlands contribute to the resiliency to climate change and its consequences. Wetlands interact with the climate.

What are the impact of global warming on wetlands?

The report provided by Kevin L. Erwin, an american environmental consulting firm, in 2009, points out the effects of global warming on wetlands. “climate change will have a pronounced effect on wetlands through alterations in hydrological regimes with great global variety.”

There will be pressure on wetlands through changes in hydrology and temperatures as well land-use change (Ferrati et al. 2005). The impact of those changes can be: “change in base flows; altered hydrology; increased heat stress in wildlife; extended range and activity of some pest and disease vectors; increased flooding, landslide, avalanche, and mudslide damage; increased soil erosion; increased flood runoff resulting in recharge of some floodplain aquifers; decreased water resource quantity and quality; increased risk of fires; increased coastal erosion and damage to coastal buildings and infrastructure; increased damage to coastal ecosystems such as coral reefs and mangroves and increased tropical cyclone activity.” We might not want to do anything to increase the chances of experiencing it.

The impacts on wetlands can be explained by their vulnerability to the changes in hydrological regimes, the increasing temperatures and the altered evapotranspiration, all caused by the global warming (IPCC 1998; Burkett and Kusler 2000)

The report also states that “An important management strategy to ensure wetland sustainability is the prevention or reduction of additional stress that can reduce the ability of wetlands to respond to climate change. Maintaining hydrology, reducing pollution, controlling exotic vegetation, and protecting wetland biological diversity and integrity are important activities to maintain and improve the resiliency of wetland ecosystems so that they continue to provide important services under changed climatic conditions (Kusler et al. 1999; Ferrati et al. 2005).”

Indeed, wetlands interact with the climate. They are very vulnerable to changes, but they also play a crucial role in slowing down the global warming and showing resiliency to the already experienced damages.

What services does the wetland provide in the context of global warming

We are trying to slow down and adapt to the global warming, and wetlands are crucial in this undertaking because they provide inestimable ecological services. Wetlands abate the global warming and its effects in three ways.

1) Climate change provokes the rising of the frequency of extreme meteorological events. Mangroves, deltas, marshes and estuaries play diminish the impact of tides and therefore erosion of coasts; wetlands also diminish the impact of flooding.

2) The water is soaked up in the ground into groundwater tables and provides for water during periods of hydric stress.

3) Wetlands are also carbon sinks, which slows down the global warming. The report points out that “Wetlands cover 6% of the world’s land surface and contain about 12% of the global carbon pool”.The carbon gets stuck in the plants through photosynthesis and even more in peatlands. Peatlands constitute 3% of the world’s surface but accumulate twice as much carbon as forests, which represents 30% of the world’s surface.

Destroy wetlands and you will accelerate the global warming while experiencing its consequences even more than we do now. 

In the case of the airport Notre Dame-des-Landes, is it reasonable, or even possible to move the wetland elsewhere?

The convention of Ramsar and the national legislation

In 1971, 169 countries, among which the hexagon, agreed to the convention of Ramsar on wetlands. The goal of the conference was to jam the degradation of Wetlands, promoting a sustainable use of these places and recognizing the ecological, economic, cultural, scientific and recreative use of these areas.

The logic of the convention states that wetlands are more use to us intact (ecological benefits) than destroyed (economic perspectives). It is a cost-benefit calculation. It means that the goal is not to protect wetlands as such, but only what benefits us in it. In this way we can understand the logic behind the solution found at this conference: each wetland that will be destroyed has to be replaced somewhere else on a surface twice bigger as the former wetland.

The legislation was transcribed in the french legislation. The disposition 8B-2 du SDAGE du bassin Loire-Bretagne states

8B Recréer des zones humides disparues, restaurer les zones humides dégradées pour contribuer à l’atteinte du bon état des masses d’eau de cours d’eau associées

8B-2 Dès lors que la mise en œuvre d’un projet conduit, sans alternative avérée, à la disparition de zones humides, les mesures compensatoires proposées par le maître d’ouvrage doivent prévoir, dans le même bassin versant, la recréation ou la restauration de zones humides équivalentes sur le plan fonctionnel et de la qualité de la biodiversité. A défaut, la compensation porte sur une surface au moins égale à 200 % de la surface supprimée. La gestion et l’entretien de ces zones humides doivent être garantis à long terme.

What it means for the Airport Notre Dame-des-Landes

As the opposition to the project grows stronger and stronger (hunger strikes human chains, inflow of opponents from all parts of the hexagon), the French state asked three commissions to provide reports on the project. On April 9th, the dialogue commission produced a report, along with two other commissions, the agricultural commission and the environmental commission

The reports are no longer available on the webpage of the ministry of environment, energy and seas. Conducting research on the subject I had base my analyses of the impact on wetlands in relation to climate change on articles that quoted those reports!

The report of the dialogue commission is titled “report of the assembly of scientific experts about the assessment of the compensation method of incidences on the wetlands” (“rapport du collège d’experts scientifiques relatif à l’évaluation de la méthode de compensation des incidences sur les zones humides.)

The following reproaches are made to the company Vinci, in charge of the project.

the company did not respect the directive

the method of compensation was formulated in a way that it was hardly understandable by citizens

It did not take into account the possible failure of the compensation program

neither did they reflect on the time that would be needed to recreate the zone and its effective functions

the choice and the calculus of the coefficients of compensation (a tool to measure how the wetland can be replaced) was not justified enough

uncertainty about the possibility of assessing the result of the compensation afterward.

What seems to be clear in this report is that we don’t know exactly how to recreate a biosphere. Wetlands are spaces where life flourishes in a spectacular way and there is no way of knowing, even if we do the inventory of all living things on the zone, that we would recreate a wetland with the same quality.

In this way, the wetland is an objection that could be overcome in the project of airport Notre Dame-des-Landes. We could compensate the wetland Bois: landes et bocages au Sud-ouest de Notre-Dame-des-Landes with another one, providing the carbon sinks and the ecological services that we need. But we couldn’t do it without a hint of culpability knowing that we may lose the symbiose and the sumptuousness in the variety of the wetland that exists: there is no guarantee that it would work.

[zadvabien-blog]

What about democracy?

As the outcome of the popular consultation relating to the Notre Dames des Landes (NDDL) project was announced on June 27 2016, Manuel Valls immediately tweeted « Democracy has spoken ». However, one can seriously doubt that this was indeed the case. The very goal of such a referendum is precisely to take into account the opinion of the population so as to make a decision that will satisfy the majority and hopefully, serve the public interest. Nevertheless, the government has supported the Grand Ouest airport since the beginning (since the 1974 to be exact). Although the idea of a consultation might seem relevant at first glance, it can only empower and give their sovereignty back to the citizens if they actually have all the cards in their hands, which was sadly not the case here. Not only did both the government and local politicians frame the debate so as to defend their own subjective points of view, but they also shunned all the objections from the other side and substantive issues on the matter.

The alleged "benefits" of the Notre Dames des LAndes project: a smokescreen?

There is no denying that the authorities have meticulously complied with all necessary formalities, from the so called « public debate » in 2003 to the public inquiry in 2006 and ultimately the consultation of the inhabitants of the Loire-Atlantique department in 2016. And yet, these procedural steps only apparently respect the democratic process in appearence. For instance, the criteria by which a project can officially be deemed  to bring « public utility » are rather opaque. One of the arguments that is often brandished is the significantly lower cost that the construction of a new airport will have over the modernization of the old one. While the former may  allegedly require a 560 millions expense, the latter would need a budget of 800 millions. However, these estimates have been criticised more than once for being exaggerated and biasing the result towards the first option. In fact, some argue that the numbers are not comparable, as they refer to substantially different scenarios. Indeed, as promising as an 800 million euro check might seem, it will only cover the cost of infrastructures with an installed capacity of 4 to 5 millions of visitors. According to the Direction Générale de l’aviation civile, if the 9 millions passengers; objective is to be achieved (assuming the government’s green light on the project), the cost should near approximately 900 millions.

Moreover, the NDDL-defenders (like the Wings for the West Association.) dangle the prospect of job creation in front of us: a construction site offering 4,5 millions working hours for the public buildings company, 5000 positions in the future Airbus research institute that will be situation in Loire Atlantique airport and 600 new jobs per million passengers in NDDL. One of the main concerns of a lot of voters is managing to get through difficult times with their jobs intact. Those who advocate for the construction of NDDL know it all too well and lure citizens and voters with those tempting promises. The other side of the coin is that that these 4 millions working hours « only » represent 700 jobs (protestors resisting the new airport project and which does not take into the sectoral job losses such as in agricultural and hence doesn’t offer a net figure for job creation). Another major flaw in this reasoning is that the proportional link between passenger travel and job creation is taken for granted. Be it absent-mindedness or bad faith, this figure is forgetting an important dynamic that goes hand in hand with globalisation and rationalisation: automatisation. The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) thus indicated that in regard to employment, it would be more beneficial to maintain the airport in Bouguenais. A newer modern airport would ineluctably be even more modern and computerised, consequently making it less likely to produce more position than the current location in Loire Atlantique. Such an appreciation would be all the more interesting as the extension of the current airport in Bouguenais could start straight away, as there would be no need to expell the so called  « zadists » (activists resisting the new airport and currently occupying its future construction site in order to paralyse the project; in development planning law, a "ZAD" refers to a "Designated Development Area" but for the activists it means a "Zone to be protected") or conduct another public hearing.

A question that has also been raised more than once is that of the noise pollution. As the current airport is located in a highly urbanised zone, the citizens living nearby suffer both from the sound inconvenience and the fear of an accident (half of the planes fly over the centre of Nantes at altitudes as low as 500 meters). It is no surprise that the local politicians have soon adopted a « not in my backyard » rhetoric, hoping to speak to and exploit these particular interests. Admittedly, these concerns may be justified and well-founded, but it is also important to note that transferring the airport to NDDL might not be the most efficient solution to the problem. Indeed, if one inspects the noise exposure maps of Nantes, road traffic seems to pose more of a problem than the airline one. Ironically, there was never any discussion among the elected representatives about moving the ring road.

Well placed among the arguments used in favour of the NDDL project is the alleged protection of the Grand-Lieu lake along with its natural reserve. Highly hypocritically, the government that posed as the champion of climate protection during the COP21 now is seen to use the environment as pretext to justify the construction of a new airport. Although this paradox might seem without rationale, it fits in a larger context that has often been coined as « post-truth politics ». In this political culture, campaigners and politicians frame the debate by appealing to emotions and continue to repeat their claims even if they have been proven to be untrue. Similarly, the « Grand Lieu lake » talking point remained in the official discourse in spite of all factual rebuttals. Consequently, one of the lake’s most prestigious experts working at the CNRS (National Center of Scientific Research), Loïc Marion, denounced the fallacious argument in an open letter to the Chairperson of the commission. Contrary to what the local and national authorities state, far from being endangered by the current airport, the lake would actually indirectly be at risk if the current airport happened to be transferred to NDDL. Indeed, the ongoing ban on construction that has preserved this sanctuary until now would no longer apply, as construction and planned urbanisation is claimed by the metropolis of Nates as an argument in favour of the relocating of the airport.  

Have the public authorities ever truely listened to the concerns of their citizens?

Deliberate or not, one thing is certain: this misinformation about the real consequences of the NDDL project did not enable the citizens to make a positive, « enlightened » choice as they expressed themselves through the ballot box. Furthermore, the wording in the question of the referendum that the government called on the transferring of the airport to Notre Dames des Landes could even be considered biased. The consultation asked « Are you in favour of the transferring of the Nantes-Atlantic airport to Notre-Dames-des-Landes? », implying that the current airport would be closed, while it will actually be left at Airbus’ disposal. However, a clear definition of who will bear the cost of this potential testing area has yet to be found. There is little likelihood that Airbus will be willing to pay for infrastructures that it could use for free up until now, so one may reasonably suspect that taxpayers  will eventually be asked to help provide financial support. In order to represent a way out of the inextricable deadlock that the construction of this new airport has become, the referendum should not only have been unambiguous, but the information that was previously given to the public should also have put the stakes of the debate in perspective. Above all, one can hardly turn a blind eye on the regional discrepancies that hide behind the seemingly « overwhelming « yes » victory », to repeat the words of the then President Hollande. Although 55.17 % of the Loire Atlantique inhabitants declared their support to the new Grand Ouest airport, those who will be the most affected are also the most reticent. In the future construction area, voter turnout was not particularly high. In NDDL for instance, it reached 75% with 73.7% of the votes hostile to the project. In Nantes  the « yes » only won by a narrow 50.06 % (a few hundred votes) and the commune of Bouguenais was identically mixed (except for the zone around the Grand-Lieu lake, where the transferring of the airport to NDDL enjoyed a significant popularity). On the other hand, people residing in Chateaubriand (which is a peripheral area located far from the current airport) massively tilted the playing field in favour of the new project (85%).

The referendum did not have the expected effect, nor did it give legitimacy and impetus to the project. Inversely, it has even been decried as a « cosmetic » consultation that was merely supposed to plebiscite the new airport. In the authorities' almost teleological view of history (let us not forget that talks about the new airport have been lasting for a decade now), once a state project is on the table, under no circumstances shall it be stopped. Consequently, those who stand on the way of or hinder the Notre Dames des Landes construction were treated without any consideration. Thus, one cannot help to notice the excessive violence and brutality exerted by the forces of law and order on the "zadists", which illustrates the government's reluctance to fully engage in the dialogue proces with the militants. After the tragic death of Remi Fraisse in Sivens, it is quite appalling to see the government has still not learned from past mistakes. In 2012, an operation was thus launched to force the demonstrators out of the « ZAD » (future construction site in NDDL), but the situation soon degenerated (as shown in the following video)

video violent combats between the authorities and the zadistes