14-1190b-innovation-managing-risk-evidence

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HOW TO BUILD REGULATORY
FRAMEWORKS FOR NEW
TECHNOLOGIES
Dominique Auverlot, Marie-Françoise Chevallier - Le
Guyader, Françoise Roure, Jean-Luc Pujol, Aude Teillant,
Clélia Godot 1
Introduction
French citizens’ vision of innovation and progress has
deteriorated significantly: technical innovation is no longer
synonymous with progress. As highlighted in the final report
of France ten years from now: Priorities for the Coming Decade 2 :
“the French keep trust in science but its applications are often
considered with suspicion. Their distrust is not expressed as
doubt about scientific contributions but with respect to the
ability of public and private institutions to distinguish between
real progress for our society and those that induce excessive
risk. Our ambivalence about scientific and technical progress
ultimately results mainly in broader distrust and doubt about
our collective ability to use its results in the service of human
progress.”
Moreover, according to public surveys conducted as part
of the exercise France ten years from now, French citizens are
now particularly pessimistic: in October 2013, only 5% were
confident about the future economy of the country. Thus,
France ranks last among the 24 countries surveyed. This
distrust extends to politics and institutions, to their regulatory
frameworks and to the processes for managing risks coming
from new technologies.
In this climate of distrust, the current procedures for citizen
participation in public decisions promote “a more active
citizen sovereignty,” according to Pierre Rosanvallon, but they
no longer allow for building standards recognized by society
for the development of new technologies. Yet the industrial
sector needs, now more than ever, a clear vision on the future
regulatory framework in order to invest.
In short, as highlighted by the President of the National
Commission for Public Debate (CNDP 3 ) in an op-ed on
July 25, 2014: “The challenge today is to invent a new model
[of citizen participation in public decisions] that combines
participation and efficiency”. Applying this model for building
a regulatory framework for new technologies, including risk
management, is needed all the more.
This working paper will present first the current French
procedures for citizen contributions to infrastructure projects
that can be seen as successful; then, with a few examples, the
difficulties encountered in public debates on new technologies.
In a third section, we’ll see that the deterioration of relations
between science and society can probably explain these
difficulties to some extent. Finally, it will outline some ways
forward for establishing regulatory frameworks for new
technologies based on public participation.
1. Public debate on infrastructure projects: a wellfunctioning
response to public outcry
In 1992, following large public protests during several
infrastructure projects (TGV Mediterranean, TGV
Nord, motorways A14, A16, A1 bis, Nantes-Niort), an
administrative report 4 stressed that citizens should be
recognized as key players in public decision-making and that
it should be a necessity to involve them continuously, well
ahead of the decision, in particular at a regional scale.
Following its conclusions, laws adopted in 1995 5 and
in 2002 created public debate procedures for local and
regional development and infrastructure projects (roads,
railways, power lines, and so on) and an independent
administrative authority — the National Commission for
Public Debate — to organize it. Some characteristics of the
public debate procedure can be underlined:
• It lasts for four months (six in the case of additional
expertise), and is conducted by a neutral third party —
called a Particular Commission for Public Debate — which
does not give any personal conclusion at the end of the
debate. It has only to present the arguments exchanged
during the debate for enlightening public decision-makers. It
highlights in particular the pros and cons.
• The (public or private) project manager is required to give
his decision about whether the project continues or not,
and to provide possible changes resulting from the debate
within three months after the publication of the report on
the debate.
• The principle of equivalence: the same treatment is given
to each participant in the public meeting, and more generally,
in the public debate. Everyone, regardless of status, is
encouraged in the same way to contribute to the debate.
• The ‘upstream position’ in the project design: the public
debate is especially interesting when it occurs early enough
in the operational schedule of the project, so that its design
and its options may be questioned and changed if necessary
at the end of the debate.
• An initial report, describing the project, its goals and its
options, written by the project team (and verified by the
Particular Commission for Public Debate), must be given to
each participant (and is available on a dedicated website).
This procedure leads to a double improvement for the
projects. Even before the debate, the project team has to reexamine
its project and to present in a clear and pedagogical
way its goals and the set of possible solutions for fulfilling
them from a sustainable development perspective, knowing
they will be submitted to public scrutiny. Following the
debate, the project team is asked to reconsider its plan.
It may well change it in the direction of the arguments
set forth (by a majority or a minority of participants) or
even abandon it. For instance, the debate on a new rail
infrastructure from Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport to the