The Total refinery in La Mède, known for using palm oil -
Gérard Julien / AFP
It is a half-victory for environmental associations.
This Thursday, the administrative court of Marseille partially agreed with opponents of La Mède by forcing the Total group, owner of this controversial refinery, to review its impact study of the use of palm oil imported from Asia on this site located at the gates of the capital of Bouches-du-Rhône.
However, the applicants did not obtain the cancellation of the operating authorization received by the French oil company, by prefectural decree, on May 16, 2018. The Marseille administrative court, noting that the La Mède biorefinery has been operating since July 2019, “did not consider it necessary” to suspend the authorization issued to Total.
"Have the impact study completed"
On the merits of the request, the administrative court has "a stay of proceedings", giving nine months to the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône to "have the impact study completed" by Total.
The court in fact considered this Thursday that the authorization to operate was "tainted by an insufficiency of the impact study of the project", but "only" concerning "its effects on the climate, taking into account the use of very substantial quantities of palm oil and its derivatives ”.
He underlines that "the use of this raw material is particularly harmful for the environment".
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Marseilles
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Refinery
Palm oil