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- A private floating island planned off the French Riviera has failed to win the required permits.
- The French government is of the view that the artificial island is not compatible with the need to strengthen marine environmental protections.
- The 1 750 square-meter island is fitted with a restaurant, bar lounge and freshwater pool and can accommodate 350 people.
- For climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future.
Backers of a controversial private floating "island" intended to anchor off the French Riviera announced Tuesday the project had failed to win the necessary permits from the government, denouncing the environmental concerns raised by opponents that led to its demise.
"Canua Island", a 1 750 square-meter platform on a motorised trimaran fitted with a restaurant, bar lounge and freshwater pool, designed to accommodate up to 350 people, had been moored at the port of La Seyne-sur-Mer in southeast France while awaiting permits.
"It was made clear to us that we should not wait for this summer," the project's founders said in a statement, claiming to be "victims of a political vendetta".
The project had the support from the mayor of one commune in the area, Mandelieu-La Napoule, where it intended to anchor, but it was notably contested by the head of the broader Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region Renaud Muselier, a member of President Emmanuel Macron's ruling party.
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Organisers were told Monday that permits to operate were denied by the government, said the statement from the project president Jean-Bernard Falco, insisting that the backers had presented a strong case.
"This obstruction and political aberration, this denial of rights, leads us to take responsibility for the consequences of the situation and forces us to put an end the contracts of those who trusted us," it said.
The 100 employees involved were told the project, which reportedly cost Falco and his investors some 16 million euros ($17.2 million), wouldn't last.
"The government's position is that the development of an artificial island is not compatible with the need to strengthen marine environmental protections," the ministry for the sea told AFP on Monday.
The ministry explained that new legislation aimed at accelerating renewable energy development strictly regulates the installation of floating infrastructure at sea.
"Commercial artificialisation of the maritime landscape, on a coast that is already highly urbanised, in a sea plagued by pollution, is therefore not part of logical and political ecologic policy."
