Several cities in France had already launched the movement. The Minister for Energy Transition finally generalized it with a national decree, announced on Sunday July 24: the obligation for air-conditioned stores to close their doors. Agnès Pannier-Runacher also announced the reduction of luminous advertising, drawing inspiration, in large part, from already existing and poorly applied regulations.
“In the coming days, I will issue two decrees: the first generalizes the ban on illuminated advertisements regardless of the size of the city between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.”with the exception of airports and railway stations, and “the second prohibits shops from having their doors open while the air conditioning and heating are working”announced the Minister to Sunday newspaper (JDD).
leave the doors open, “it’s 20% more consumption and (…) it’s absurd “, justified Agnès Pannier-Runacher on RMC. Cities such as Bourg-en-Bresse, then Lyon, Besançon and Paris have taken municipal decrees since mid-July, when France was experiencing an exceptional heat wave, for air-conditioned stores to close their doors, under penalty of ‘fine. The government plans to generalize this to the whole country, with a fine of up to 750 euros, but it will initially focus on informing traders.
Illuminated advertising prohibited in certain agglomerations
As for illuminated advertising, the current regulations distinguish agglomerations of more or less 800,000 inhabitants: it is prohibited between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. in France in those of less than 800,000 inhabitants. In more populated ones, the rules depend on the local advertising regulations (RLP), if there is one.
The current law also already obliges to turn off illuminated signs and shop windows from 1 am. The ministry could not specify on Sunday the content of the next decree, but explains that it will aim to “harmonize the rules”without specifying the number of agglomerations today covered by an RLP or concretely how the controls and sanctions, up to 1,500 euros, will be implemented.
“The contours will be specified” when the decree comes out, “the idea is really that this should be applicable from now on”, the ministry added. Today, non-compliance with the regulations, which have existed since 2013, is not sanctioned very much.
“The challenge remains to enforce these texts by those who have public responsibility for them: the communities and the State”recently commented the ANPCEN association, the National Association for the Protection of the Night Sky and the Environment, which fights against light pollution. “To date, not only does the State not carry out the controls at its expense, but returns the responsibility to the voluntary associations”she complains.
The citizens’ convention for the climate, wanted by President Emmanuel Macron, was much more ambitious and had proposed to the government “the prohibition of these screens [vidéos publicitaires] in public spaces, public transport and at points of sale”a proposal that had been rejected.