Environmental law

The creation and development of commercial or industrial activities and the arrangement of real estate transactions require sound knowledge of the environmental issues concerned.

Our dedicated environmental law team, which operates at the crossroads between public law, healthcare law, land-use and urban planning law, and real estate law, offers our clients sophisticated support to enable them to respond to the many challenges faced by public or private companies, administrative bodies or local authorities.

Our lawyers advise all kinds of industrial operators, and particularly those specializing in the rail, aerospace and waste treatment sectors, on the management of complex regulatory issues, in particular associated with classified sites, pollution and waste.

Every acquisition involves legal risks and it is essential to carry out an exhaustive audit of the target in order to identify potential, current or future environmental risks. Such audits focus particularly on the target’s compliance with environmental law, and more specifically with the law relating to waste, water, real estate and urban planning, biodiversity, polluted sites and energy. They may also contain recommendations concerning CSR and ISO standards, and form the basis of the contractual clauses drafted for mergers and acquisitions.

Our team has a high level of expertise in the law relating to energy, water, construction, urban planning and classified installations, and can assist clients as early as the design stage of their industrial site creation projects. Among other things, we can assist our clients with compliance with regulatory requirements, negotiating easements and usage restrictions, and obtaining the necessary administrative authorizations to commence their activity (classified installations for the protection of the environment (ICPE), pollutant emissions, IOTA classification (installations, infrastructures, works and activities) etc.).

We also work closely with our clients throughout of the lifetime of their structure:

• To ensure that the site is adapted to take account of regulatory changes
• To advise the company in the event of accidents, pollution or major crises
• To advise the company on its relationship with the administration

Our team advises clients on all issues relating to business closures, the sale of sites, and their restoration, depollution and reconversion. We advise our clients, among other things, on the administrative procedures, the environmental clauses of sale and purchase agreements, project owner support, the monitoring of works, transfers of liability and the new procedure for third-party claims.

There are more than ten environmental taxes today, ranging from the eco-contribution and the tax on polluting activities (TGAP) (applicable to the waste sector, pollutant emissions, lubricants, detergents, extracted materials and biofuels) to taxes on the nuclear, oil, electricity and transport sectors and the charge on waste (TIC – domestic consumption tax). We assist our clients in understanding these taxes and the new regulations and the financial impact they have on our clients’ businesses.

August Debouzy has developed recognized expertise in the implementation of energy production and transport infrastructure projects in France and internationally, including solar power stations, wind farms and hydraulic installations.

We assist local authorities, companies and waste collection and treatment operators with all the legal issues associated with the waste sector:

• Public procurement contracts
• Negotiation and drafting of waste collection, transport, recycling, recovery, trading and disposal contracts, whether covering local or cross-border flows
• Waste management installations
• Auditing of risks
• Advice on reuse
• Producers’ liability
• Traceability of waste

We assist our clients throughout the pre-contentious and contentious stages of litigation, during the preparation of experts’ reports and in the administrative, civil and criminal courts. Our experts have proven know-how on subjects as varied as class actions, noise pollution and odor nuisances, pollution, appeals against the refusal of authorizations and warranties of environmental liabilities.