Here are some typical cases:
Cigeo in Bure
In 2000, the Cigeo project was set up in Bure in the Meuse. It aims to bury 500 meters underground 85.000 m3 of the most radioactive waste from the French nuclear fleet by 2035-2040.
Different environmentalist and anti-nuclear collectives combine occupation, demonstrations and legal battles.
In July 2022, the government signed the declaration of public utility for the project, but opponents filed an appeal before the Council of State in September.
Sivens
On October 26, 2014, the body of a 21-year-old environmental activist, Rémi Fraisse, was found on the Sivens dam site (Tarn), after clashes between opponents of the project and the police.
Five months later, the project was abandoned in favor of a water reservoir reduced by half. The government evacuated the site occupied for sixteen months by "zadists".
LGV Lyon-Turin
Several decades old, the LGV Lyon-Turin construction site and its 57,5 km tunnel is still in progress and in France, the question of the 150 km access roads between Lyon and Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne n is still not settled.
In the winter of 2018-2019, several demonstrations successively brought together in Turin tens of thousands of supporters and opponents of the project.
The LGV du Sud-Ouest (GPSO) project, whose construction is planned between Bordeaux, Dax and Toulouse, is also criticized by elected officials and activists in New Aquitaine.
Europacity in the Val-d'Oise
The Europacity project, a megacomplex of shops and leisure planned in Gonesse (Val d'Oise) which bristled environmental defenders, agricultural unions and small traders, was buried at the end of 2019 by Emmanuel Macron.
But the future of 280 hectares of agricultural land in the Triangle de Gonesse, in particular the Grand Paris metro station project and the extension of the Rungis market, remain a point of tension between local elected officials and environmental activists.
Center Parcs
Faced with endless legal proceedings and the occupation of the land by "zadists", the Pierre et Vacances group gives up its project to build a Center Parcs in the forest of Chambaran (Isère) in 2020.
In 2022, justice blocks a project of the same type in Poligny (Jura) and refuses that of extension of the Center Parcs Les Bois-Francs (Eure).
Still in progress, the Rousset project (Saône-et-Loire) is also contested locally.
Montagne d'Or mining project in French Guiana
The Montagne d'Or project, led by the Russian-Canadian consortium Nordgold-Orea Mining, provides for an 8 km2 open-air mining operation in the equatorial forest.
The collective Or de Question, which brings together 30 Guyanese associations and 120 NGOs opposed to the project, denounces deforestation and the millions of tons of waste generated.
In February 2022, the Constitutional Council declared unconstitutional part of the old mining code, which did not sufficiently take into account the environmental consequences of the project, thus opening a way of appeal.
"Mega-basins" of Deux-Sèvres
In the fall of 2022, several thousand opponents are mobilizing against water retention sites in Deux-Sèvres (in Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon then Sainte-Soline).
The vast project has 16 reservoirs aimed at storing several hundred thousand m3 of water for irrigation during the summer, thanks to the pumping of surface water tables in winter, when the resource is abundant.
The filling of the Mauzé-sur-le-Mignon reserve started in mid-December.