World First: French State Enjoined To Reevaluate All Pesticides

Photo by Philippe Besnard

On September 3rd, 2025, something major almost went unnoticed in the climate and biodiversity space. An event that could slow down biodiversity loss in France, and that could trigger a domino effect across the world - a revolution. You may have missed it, because although it made national news in France, it was only for a brief moment, and never reached the international stage.

It isn't hard to guess why: biodiversity is a topic that doesn't get enough attention, meaning that talking about it requires a lot of context. So let's contextualise!

For decades, biodiversity (the diversity of life on Earth), has been decimated by human activities. There has been a 73% average decline in wild vertebrate populations since 1970. Insects are particularly affected - accounting for 90% of all animal species and pollinating 90% of wild flowering plants, their populations have declined, with flying insect biomass dropping 60–76% in countries like the UK and Germany.

There are many reasons why this is a huge problem, and all are tied to the incredible role biodiversity plays in keeping life itself viable. Namely, losing biodiversity means losing two things: losing ecosystem services (e.g. water filtration, soil health, pollination) provided by the species in decline, as well as a pool of genes potentially capable of surviving the other hardships that nature or humans can - and will - throw at living species.

Biodiversity has dropped several times in life's history, during what is called mass extinctions (one of which was the extinction of the dinosaurs). With that said, while there isn't yet a consensus as to whether we've entered the sixth mass extinction, the pace at which populations are declining appears to be faster than anything the only known planet to host life has ever known.

So why is biodiversity declining so quickly?

The main five causes of biodiversity loss, as summarised by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, are habitat change, overexploitation, invasive alien species, pollution, and climate change (which is why climate change and biodiversity loss are so closely linked).

Pollution especially, is a major driver, and pesticides are one of its most prominent and damaging forms. Pesticides are often indiscriminate in their effects, meaning that they affect not only the target species, but also many other species who happen to come into contact with the chemical. Non-target species can die due to acute or chronic toxicity, or experience changes in behaviour such as lower reproduction rates, disorientation or even smaller burrows in the case of species of earthworms.

Non-target species can be affected not only by the pesticide's active substance, but also by combined effects (called cocktail effects) of different pesticides, or even by the product's metabolites - the degraded, chemically altered by-product from the active substance's lifecycle.

Organisms can be affected through direct exposure, or from consuming contaminated prey - meaning that birds, small mammals and reptiles can also be affected by the pesticides.

To summarise, while pesticides (phytopharmaceutical products) are very good at their job, they don't discriminate, and it is default practice to routinely let them loose in nature. Thankfully, while not always as effective at combating pests, alternatives such as organic and regenerative agriculture practices especially offer an extraordinary balance between protecting cultures against fungal diseases, weeds, pests and other threats to produce and grain, and ensuring no unnecessary health and environmental harm occurs as a result.

That's enough context - this is where our revolution comes in.

Pesticides, due to their dangers, are regulated at the EU and the Member State level. In short, the EU is in charge of authorising active substances, while Member States are responsible for authorising the products made of these substances, and for defining what they can be used for. Member States are also subject to the EU's and their own environmental laws.

The French government has authorised countless pesticides that it deemed safe - but its authorisation procedures, through the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES), have raised concerns among environmental NGOs over the past few years. The agency's methodology for testing is at the very least questionable - the testing of non-target species didn't typically include adequate testing of cocktail effects, metabolites, non-lethal effects, chronic effects, and more. Not only that, the species that have been tested so far are often not representative of the species actually living in nature.

In stark contrast, the science on the topic considers these effects, and is very conclusive on their damaging nature as well as their extent - meaning that the French government was far from making appropriate use of available scientific knowledge to evaluate the effects of pesticides before authorising them to be commercialised on the French market.

These impact evaluation processes therefore appeared to many environmental NGOs as violating French environmental law, including the precaution principle and the code of environmental law.

Several environmental NGOs decided to take legal action before the administrative court, which in 2023 ruled against the government's past practices but did not enjoin it to change them. The NGOs filed an appeal, which was heard this summer by the Court of Administrative Appeals.

This led to a historic decision in September: in a world first, the French government was enjoined by the court to re-evaluate all pesticides currently authorised on the market within 24 months. As long as the government executes that decision, this is amazing news for biodiversity protection.

As described by Biodiversité Sous Nos Pieds, one of the NGOs to have participated in this action, several measures can be deployed immediately including:

• "Update the risk assessment procedures for pesticides to bring them into compliance with the EFSA scientific protocols of 2013;

• Strengthen the ANSES’s independence by providing it with increased human and financial resources;

• Reassess the marketing authorisations of SDHI fungicides and of insecticides and herbicides whose dangers to biodiversity and human health are documented."

The NGOs have expressed willingness to support the government in any way that would be needed - a significant stride towards a safer environment and a promising precedent for biodiversity protection.

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