Environment

Concept is tested in Mediterranean area

The €3 million project was given the green light

Eco news from around France

Latest environmental, ecological and gardening news from France

Taxes on CO2 emitting vehicles are due to get tougher in the new year with higher penalties for drivers buying new vehicles – in some cases quadruple what they would have paid this year.

A radical water treatment garden has won wine-makers in the south-west a leading environmental award as the culmination of 12 years of work to boost biodiversity and make zero-chemical wines.

Volunteers regularly clean up debris from France’s beaches along the Channel and Atlantic coasts but several also try to trace the origin of the tonnes of rubbish and, perhaps, work to stop it.

Only one in two plastic bottles is recycled in France but the recycling firm Réco-France aims to boost this with new-style recycling bins that give cash vouchers in return for bottles.

Readers should beware a scam targeting drivers buying the Crit’Air pollution vignette that is obligatory in Paris and some other cities.

This rentrée will see some pupils adding a green topic to the timetable as part of projects to make schools more environmentally friendly.

Growing numbers of ring-necked parakeets may be threatening native birds and habitats, but authorities are yet to create a plan of action to halt their spread.

If camping conjures up images of cooking sausages on a camp stove, sleeping bags and chemical toilets you might want to think again

France’s Pavillon Bleu was the world’s first blue flag scheme for clean beaches. Here, Samantha David finds out what coastal authorities have to do to be awarded the prestigious mark

France is facing a rise in hard-to-eradicate bed bugs with a study showing they have infested 200,000 sites.

Battery recycling group Corepile is encouraging households to do more to take out batteries from old equipment and recycle them – saying for every 100 batteries just 40 are recycled while 35 are ‘stored at home’ and 25 thrown out as rubbish.