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France’s Environment Minister, Monique Barbut, has announced her resignation after lawmakers approved a bill allowing the return of two controversial pesticides linked to harm to bees.
Barbut said on Wednesday that she would “submit her resignation to the president today,” accusing the government of blocking debate on the measure.
“Contrary to the commitments that had been made to me, the government prevented any debate on the removal of this measure,” she said in a statement posted on LinkedIn.
She described the decision as “one environmental setback too many.”
Barbut, who previously headed WWF France and served as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), also criticised the political process.
“Politics is not my world, and if this is what politics is about, it definitely never will be,” she said.
On Tuesday, the French parliament passed an agriculture bill allowing the conditional use of acetamiprid and flupyradifurone, two pesticides critics say are harmful to bees.
The law gives France’s health and safety agency, Anses, the authority to approve the pesticides under certain conditions.
Supporters say the chemicals are needed to help French sugar beet, apple and hazelnut farmers compete with producers in other European countries, where the pesticides remain permitted.
However, opponents argue that the chemicals pose risks to bees and human health.
“In 2016, France chose to ban acetamiprid in the name of the precautionary principle, based on the scientific evidence available at the time,”
“Ten years later, far from dispelling concerns, scientific studies continue to raise doubts about its effects on human health and the environment,” Barbut said.
The vote comes after France’s Constitutional Council last year blocked an earlier attempt to reintroduce acetamiprid, citing potential health risks.
That decision followed a petition signed by more than two million people opposing the pesticide.
