• The Giec des Pays-de-la-Loire was created to help elected officials in the region make the right decisions.

  • Threatened fauna, drought, temperatures... Global warming could have very clear consequences in the coming years.

  • 40% of fish would thus be threatened with extinction.

  • Nantes and Angers could experience a climate close to that of Biarritz.

It must help elected officials make the right decisions.

A year and a half after its creation, the Giec des Pays-de-la-Loire has just produced a very comprehensive first report.

Like that of the United Nations, this group of experts is not very optimistic about the consequences of global warming in the region, if nothing is done to limit it.

Here are some numbers it contains.

40% of fish threatened with extinction

Wetlands, hedgerows, meadows… The Pays-de-la-Loire region has many landscapes favorable to biodiversity.

However, they are put “under pressure” by human activities.

According to experts, "40% of fish, 30% of birds and amphibians, 24% of flora, 21% of reptiles and 10% of mammals are threatened with extinction under the combined effect of modification and decline of natural environments in the region, the deterioration of water resources, the alteration of wetlands, the development of invasive alien species or even the extension of intensive agriculture.

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With 2°C more, Nantes could look like Biarritz

Agriculture, road transport and industry are the three main sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the region.

As a result, the regional climate appears “less and less temperate”, note the experts.

Depending on the scenarios, temperatures could increase by 1 to 1.15°C, or even by 2 to 2.5°C in 2055: Nantes and Angers could then display average annual temperatures equivalent to those of Biarritz in recent times!

This could lead to the pure and simple disappearance of cold spells.

In 80 years, 95 hot days a year

Conversely, the region recorded as many heat waves between 2000 and 2020 as in the previous five decades, writes the IPCC.

In total, it could have 95 hot days per year by 2100 instead of 45 days in a scenario of strong reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

It will also be necessary to prepare to face very strong heat, with possibly ten days a year during which the mercury will exceed 35°C.

"Drought is one of the most worrying consequences of climate change for the region," say the experts.

With tensions in drinking water to be feared due to the warming of the water of the Loire (where it is mainly drawn), which constitutes a danger for its good quality.

The risk of forest fires up by 20%

“Extreme events” such as storms or forest fires should be more numerous in the coming years.

“Given the high exposure of the Pays de la Loire coastline to the winds and the extent of its low coastal areas, we know that the region is among the most vulnerable to the meteorological phenomenon” of submersion, we read.

In the Pays-de-la-Loire, by the end of the century, the risk of forest fires could increase by 20% to 30% on the Atlantic coast, which is less exposed than certain southern regions.

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