In the Camargue region, NGOs are calling for the abandonment of the high-voltage overhead power line project.

This future 400.000 volt overhead line is "necessary," Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday, stressing that "everything must be done to ensure that this line is in service by 2029 to meet increased consumption and enable the electrification of current and future industries."

Responding to the President of the Republic and several ministers in a letter consulted Thursday by AFP, 15 signatories, including France Nature Environnement, the League for the Protection of Birds and WWF France, believe that protected natural areas "cannot be variables for adjusting energy sovereignty policies".

The State announced on May 13 that it was launching the investigation of the declaration of public utility (DUP) of this project intended to run from Jonquières (Gard) to Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), planning the installation of 180 pylons of 50 to 90 meters high over the 65 kilometers of route which notably crosses part of the Camargue park nature reserve.

According to the signatories, an overhead line would fragment natural habitats and threaten several protected species of migratory birds.

They also warn of the "cumulative impacts" of other projects planned in the Rhône delta and its surroundings: hydrogen pipelines, highways, and offshore wind turbines.

Recalling that the Camargue, one of the largest wetlands in Europe, is made up of numerous environmental labels (UNESCO biosphere reserve, nature reserves, etc.), the signatories ask the State to study "an alternative solution that is not aerial", but buried or underwater, as has long been proposed by local elected officials and scientists.

Amid a crisis in the Middle East that has caused a surge in energy prices, the high-voltage line is, according to its promoters, an essential infrastructure for securing the region's electricity supply, as well as for decarbonizing and reindustrializing the Fos-Berre industrial-port area, one of the most polluting and greenhouse gas emitting areas in the country.

According to industry and the government, projected investments in this area could reach between 16,9 and 19,9 billion euros (72% private and 28% public) by 2030. This could potentially create nearly 10.000 direct jobs.

One of the emblematic projects of this reindustrialization was recently abandoned, however, with the judicial liquidation of the French company Carbon, which planned a giga-factory for photovoltaic panels, with the creation of more than 3.000 direct jobs.