00:03France's Minister for Ecological Transition, Monique Barbu, will remain in her post despite
00:08her opposition to a bill allowing deharming pesticides to come back into use. She had
00:14submitted her resignation earlier on Wednesday, but President Emmanuel Macron rejected it.
00:19The minister will stay due to the urgency to address the consequences of climate change,
00:24her office said. On Tuesday, Parliament passed the government's Emergency Agriculture Bill on the
00:31conditional reintroduction of certain pesticides authorized in the European Union but banned in
00:36France. The outgoing minister criticized the bill and said the reversal was one environmental setback
00:42to many. The law gives France's Health and Safety Agency the authority to conditionally authorize
00:49the use of acetamiprid and Fupiradifuron. The bill's supporters say that sugar beet and hazelnut
00:56farmers need the insecticides which have been forbidden in France since 2018 and 2019. Barbu
01:02noted that acetamiprid was banned using the scientific evidence available at the time.
01:08Last year, France passed another bill allowing use of the pesticide but it was struck down after strong
01:14public protests.
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