Should we flee, cook or act? The elected members of the Paris Council’s information and assessment mission (MIE) entitled “Paris at 50°C” chose the third option, concluding six months of work on Friday 14 April. Its members, from all the political groups, put forward 85 recommendations to prevent the capital from becoming uninhabitable in the medium term. While heat waves will intensify and multiply due to climate change, “it’s another urban model that needs to be drawn”says the report, a sum of 240 pages that The world was able to consult.
Cause a “big bang in the thermal renovation of buildings”, greening the streets, brightening the roofs, adapting the work, giving up certain festivals in the summer or even promoting swimming: the recommendations are multiple. Some require little money and can be set up easily. But many represent colossal projects and require a review of social organizations. “These transformations require the mobilization of unprecedented means in the face of the emergency, financially, materially, humanly but also democratically”acknowledge the authors.
The mission, set up in early October 2022, interviewed 75 people, received around forty written contributions and made several field visits. Its conclusions, which must be submitted to the mayor, Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party), will feed into the City’s new climate plan and the Paris environmental health plan, which is currently being revised. Some are already taken into account in the draft new town planning regulations, which will be presented to the Paris Council in June. “There are many common issues, and the MIE is intended to feed the work of the executive”assures Emmanuel Grégoire, the first deputy mayor, in charge of town planning.
“All the solutions already exist”
The capital has long since undertaken to adapt to the effects of climate change – its first climate plan dates from 2007 – it has learned the lessons of the 2003 heat wave and “all the solutions already exist”recognizes Alexandre Florentin, elected ecologist and president of this mission. “But the heat waves are going to be more frequent, intense and long, so we have to consolidate all the initiatives very quickly.he warns. It is no longer a step that one must climb, but Everest. »
According to projections, Paris could experience three times as many scorching days (with temperatures above 30°C) by 2085, and seven times as many tropical nights (over 20°C), compared to 2010. the capital has already recorded a maximum temperature of 42.6°C in the summer of 2019, climatologists no longer rule out peaks of 50°C in the summer in the coming decades.
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