Installations classées pour la protection de l'environnement (ICPE)

Awareness of industrial pollution dates back to the early 19th century. Originally aimed at factories, workshops and establishments emitting unhealthy and unpleasant odours, the scope of the regulations had to evolve with the times. The regulations governing classified facilities as we know them today derive from Law no. 76-663 of July 19, 1976 on facilities classified for environmental protection (ICPE), and its implementing decree no. 77-1133 of September 21, 1977. It applies to facilities that may "present dangers or inconveniences either for the convenience of the neighborhood, or for public health, safety and hygiene, or for agriculture, or for the protection of nature, the environment and landscapes, or for the rational use of energy, or for the conservation of sites and monuments as well as elements of archaeological heritage".

The commissioning of these facilities is then subject to certain administrative procedures, under the following two regimes: authorization (A) and declaration (D). However, technological change and feedback from experience have prompted changes in administrative regimes. It was in this context that Law no. 95-101 of February 2, 1995 on the reinforcement of environmental protection (known as the "Barnier Law") introduced the possibility of subjecting certain classified installations under the declaration regime to periodic inspections. This new obligation was born of the realization that it was impossible, given the resources available to the authorities, to carry out effective checks on declared facilities, and that many of them were operating in contravention of current regulations. The aim was to enable operators to ensure that their facilities were operating correctly. Twenty years later, Decree no. 2006-435 of April 13, 2006 set out the procedures for periodic inspections to be carried out by approved bodies: the declaration with periodic inspection (DC) system was introduced. More recently, decree no. 2011-1460 of November 7, 2011 further improved this system by introducing a follow-up system for serious non-conformities identified during these inspections.