France environment minister quits, then stays to act on climate

France's environment minister will remain in her post, given the "urgency" to act on climate change, after submitting her resignation to President Emmanuel Macron over a bill to reintroduce bee-harming pesticides, her team said Wednesday.

Monique Barbut announced her departure on Wednesday morning, just weeks after the opposition accused the government of failing to prepare for increasingly frequent heatwaves scientists say are fuelled by man-made climate change.

She submitted her resignation to Macron over her disagreement with parliament on Tuesday backing the restricted reintroduction of two insecticides banned in France but allowed in the European Union.

"Contrary to the commitments that had been made to me, the government prevented any debate on the removal of this measure," Barbut, the former head of WWF France, wrote on LinkedIn.

"Politics is not my world, and if this is what politics is about, it definitely never will be."

But Macron did not accept her resignation and "assured her of his support," her office told AFP.

Barbut -- also former executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification -- will 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 disrupted daily life, closed schools and fuelled wildfires.

Green leader Marine Tondelier said Barbut's resignation was "an earthquake for this 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 that her throwing in the towel was "a sign that there is no long-term adaptation strategy."

On Tuesday, parliament approved an agriculture bill giving France's health and safety agency the authority to authorise in some cases the use of two pesticides banned in France called acetamiprid and flupyradifurone.

Proponents say French sugar beet, apple and hazelnut farmers need the insecticides 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.

Francois Veillerette, a spokesman for anti-pesticide organisation Generations Futures, condemned what he called the government "betrayal".

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