France environment minister quits, then stays to act on climate

France's environment minister said Wednesday she would remain in her post as long as she was able to act on key issues like climate change, hours after resigning because parliament allowed bee-harming pesticides.

Monique Barbut announced her departure on Wednesday morning, outraged at the lack of debate before parliament the previous day approved reintroducing two banned insecticides to help struggling farmers.

Her move, which she had threatened from Monday, came after the opposition accused the government of failing to prepare for increasingly frequent heatwaves scientists link to man-made climate change.

"I will stay as long as I have the guarantee that I can take action," Barbut told Les Echos newspaper on Wednesday evening, adding that her ministry would be leading the country's plan for adaptation to climate change.

But "I can assure you this will be my first and last experience in politics," added Barbut, who previously headed WWF France and was executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

She submitted her resignation to President Emmanuel Macron, but he did not accept it and "assured her of his support", her office told AFP.

She would stay due to the "urgency to address the consequences of climate change," her team added.

France has so far this year endured three punishing heatwaves that have caused thousands of excess deaths, closed schools, fuelled wildfires and dried up riverbeds.

'Bare minimum'

Green leader Marine Tondelier earlier said Barbut's resignation was "an earthquake" for the government.

"It exposes its inability to do even the bare minimum on environmental issues, namely refraining from reauthorising dangerous pesticides," Tondelier said on X.

Fanny Metrat, spokesperson for the Confederation Paysanne, a left-leaning farmers' union, said Barbut trying to quit was "a sign that there is no long-term adaptation strategy" for climate change.

On Tuesday, parliament approved an agriculture bill permitting France's health and safety agency to authorise in certain cases the use of two pesticides previously banned in France.

Proponents say French sugar beet, apple and hazelnut farmers need acetamiprid and flupyradifurone to help them compete with their European counterparts.

But opponents argue they are dangerous to bees and human health.

The pesticides are allowed in the European Union, but individual countries can limit their use.

The vote came after the Constitutional Council, the country's highest court, last year struck down a provision in another bill trying to reintroduce acetamiprid, saying it posed risks to human health, after more than two million people signed a petition against it.