Environmental concerns play an increasing part in public debate and international negotiations and France has always been one of the leaders of this trend. Nonetheless, French environmental policies remain fairly cautious for at least three reasons. First, because of the lack of environmentally-related global governance. Secondly, because the French government is reluctant to burden business with the cost of adapting production processes in order to make them less harmful to the environment, for fear of damaging competitiveness. Finally, because of inadequate environmental accountability and the weak assessment of sustainable indicators.