En France, air pollution is responsible for more than 40,000 premature deaths per year, including more than 4,300 in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, according to figures from Public Health France. In 2021, a study coordinated by Harvard University (United States) even reassessed the number of premature deaths in France at nearly 100,000.
Beyond this state of affairs, studies are multiplying to show the link between air pollution and various diseases: asthma, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, cancers, liver diseases, or others such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. . Air pollution is therefore first and foremost a public health issue.
It is also an issue of social justice. In fact, the most vulnerable people are those who are most exposed to pollution. In the Lyon conurbation, for example, people living near major highways or around the “chemical valley”, whose incomes are lower on average, are also those who suffer the most from air pollution. air.
One hundred billion euros per year
These impacts have a cost, health and socio-economic, estimated by the Senate to nearly 100 billion euros per year in France. While such a finding is alarming, what is most worrying is the gap between the issues raised by air pollution and the measures that are, to say the least, insufficient undertaken by the State and its services.
In October 2022, the Council of State again condemned the State for its inaction in terms of air pollution, and more specifically for its failure to comply with European standards, particularly in the Lyon area. France is still not doing enough to protect its citizens and provide them with healthy air, in accordance with the obligation enacted by the Air Act 1996. In September 2022, the Council of State also recognized the right of everyone to live in a healthy environment as a fundamental freedom.
However, the executive has several levers of action to limit air pollution, including the plans for the protection of the atmosphere (PPA), set up by the prefectures for agglomerations of more than 250,000 inhabitants. In Lyon, the second version of the PPA (PPA-2) was recognized in 2019 as insufficient by the administrative court. In November 2022, the new version of the PPA (PPA-3) was adopted.
This new plan could have been an opportunity for the State to raise its ambitions against air pollution, but it remains insufficient and inconsistent. Indeed, few objectives are quantified, the schedules for implementing the measures are too unambitious and rarely specified, and it is already certain that the resources allocated by the executive will be insufficient to implement all the measures planned. .
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