“In the next few days, I will issue two decrees: the first generalizes the ban on illuminated advertisements regardless of the size of the city between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.”, with the exception of airports and train stations, and “the second prohibits stores from having their doors open while the air conditioning and heating are working,” the minister told the Journal du Dimanche (JDD).
Leaving the doors open, “it’s 20% more consumption and (…) it’s absurd”, justified Agnès Pannier-Runacher on RMC.
Cities like Bourg-en-Bresse, then Lyon, Besançon and Paris have taken municipal decrees since mid-July, when France experienced an exceptional heat wave, for air-conditioned stores to close their doors, under penalty of a fine.
The government plans to generalize this to the whole country, with a fine of up to 750 euros, but it will initially focus on informing traders.
As for luminous advertising, the current regulations distinguish agglomerations of more or less 800,000 inhabitants: it is prohibited between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. in France in those of less than 800,000 inhabitants. In more populated ones, the rules depend on the local advertising regulations (RLP) if there is one.
The current law also already requires that neon signs and store windows be turned off from 1 a.m.
The ministry was unable to specify the content of the next decree on Sunday, but explains that it will aim to “harmonize the rules”, without specifying the number of agglomerations today covered by an RLP or concretely how the controls and sanctions , up to 1,500 euros, will be implemented.
“The contours will be specified” when the decree comes out, “the idea is really that this should be applicable now”, added the ministry.
Today, non-compliance with the regulations, which have existed since 2013, is not sanctioned very much. “The challenge remains to enforce these texts by those who have public responsibility for them: the communities and the State”, recently commented the ANPCEN association, which fights against light pollution.
“To date, not only does the State not carry out the checks at its expense, but returns the responsibility to the voluntary associations”, she denounces.
The Citizen’s Convention for the Climate, wanted by President Emmanuel Macron, was much more ambitious and had proposed to the government “the banning of these screens (video advertising) in public space, public transport and in points of sale “, a proposal which had been rejected.
