heat waves, fires, floods … The climate crisis always affects France, like the rest of the world, illustrating the last reports of the IPCC, which called for immediate and radical measures to “guarantee a livable future”.
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France suffocates again. Since the beginning of the week, it has undergone a heat wave whose intensity could surpass that of 2003. A new test, while the country had already been struck by a heat wave unprecedented by its precocity in mid-June.
In this context of burning temperatures and drought, firefighters are asked on all fronts, and have already had to face several vast fires in Gironde, in Gard, Cévennes, Var or the Pyrénées-Orientales. The bad weather that struck the country between the end of May and early July, also caused “nearly a million claims”, the cost of which is estimated at 3.9 billion euros per France insurers.
The climate crisis always affects France harder, like the rest of the world, illustrating the latest reports of the Intergovernmental Experts on Climate Evolution (IPCC), which showed that the disruption was intensified in all regions, at unprecedented levels. While the IPCC called, in early April, to immediate, radical measures and in all sectors to “guarantee a livable future”, the response of the French government is not, for the moment, not up to par. It “progresses”, but it remains “insufficient”, warned the high climate council (hcc), in its fourth annual report , published at the end of June. So that “major risks persist” not to achieve the objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions for 2030, according to the independent body, which calls for a “start” of climate action.
The sources of concern are multiple: if the emissions for 2019-2021 are in the nails, it is mainly due to the effects of the pandemic of COVVI-19 and the postponement of part of the action to more late. “The measures implemented today are not enough to put us on the right trajectory,” observes the climatologist Corinne Le Quéré, president of the HCC. In addition, the European Union (EU) noted its climatic objectives for 2030, so it will return to France to considerably increase its efforts. The annual rate of programs reduction must double, an “unprecedented acceleration”, warn the thirteen experts. In parallel, France, which “is not ready” to face the already visible impacts of climate change, must also implement a real adaptation strategy, recalls the HCC.
The pressure is all the greater since the government is under two court decisions, the Council of State and the Paris administrative court, enjoining it to take additional measures. In recent months, other authorities had noted the delay accumulated by the country, the environmental authority even judging that “the ecological transition is not started”.
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