Reconversion of the old gas plant in Blois, the old iron mines in Caen, a station or a barracks: 544 selected sites will receive aid for recycling wasteland, the Ministry of Ecological Transition announced on Friday. .
In Caen, 398.000 euros were granted for the rehabilitation of Dubourg establishments and former iron mines over 20.000 square meters, while in Maubeuge, the LCAB industrial wasteland will receive 913.000 euros for its depollution and conversion.
In Annonay, the reconversion of the old gas plant will be assisted to the tune of 188.000 euros. In Verdun, the requalification of the Miribel barracks (68.000 square meters) will receive a subsidy of 1,6 million euros, and the development of the old Renault garage in Lamballe 375.000 euros.
These projects were chosen in metropolitan France and overseas to benefit from a subsidy, under the "wasteland" set up to slow down the artificialization of land and encourage the construction of housing, within the framework of two calls for projects, the 'one piloted by the regional prefects, the other by the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe).
The aid will be used both to recycle land already artificialized and to reconvert polluted wasteland from former industrial or mining sites or even former tourist sites.
The selected projects are expected to generate a total of more than 3 million square meters of housing, of which nearly a third will be social housing, and more than 1,3 million square meters of commercial or industrial space, the ministry said in a statement. communicated.
In view of the success of the first envelope of 300 million euros announced as part of the recovery plan, which will be fully spent this year, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on May 17 its doubling with an additional envelope of 350 million euros to be spent by the end of 2022 to rehabilitate wastelands.
The calls for projects generated 1.119 application files and 631 applications were declared eligible.
The conversion of wasteland is one of the levers used by the government to achieve its objective of "zero net artificialization", included in 2018 by Nicolas Hulot in his biodiversity plan (without deadline) and included in the Climate and Resilience law with a horizon to 2050.
In France, 20.000 to 30.000 hectares of natural, agricultural or forest areas are artificialized each year, one of the primary causes of climate change and the erosion of biodiversity according to the ministry.
