Louise Sallé 06:39, February 25, 2022
UN climate scientists - the IPCC - will release a report on the impacts of climate change on Monday.
Ahead of this publication, French experts from various institutes are warning this Friday of France's unpreparedness in the face of high temperatures, floods and rising sea levels.
For experts from the main French research centers on the socio-economic impacts of climate change - the Institute of Economics for Climate (I4CE), the High Council for Climate (HCC), and the Institute for Development sustainability and international relations (Iddri) - France is not ready to face the consequences of global warming.
Even in a world warmed to at least +2°C by the end of the century - that is to say if all the States apply all of their promises to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions -, heat waves, floods and storms, droughts or even forest fires will be more and more intense in the years to come.
But despite all the known scientific forecasts, on each extreme event that could repeatedly hit France, the country has not adapted to the changing climate.
Adaptation to climate change, the poor relation of public policies
The State thus never obliges to question, for each construction, the resilience of the materials or the technologies used.
According to the adaptation researcher at the Economic Institute for Climate (I4CE), Vivian Dépoues, this is a notion that is even ignored in the most recent developments, carried out with public money.
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"There has been a great acceleration in recent years, for example, aid for the thermal renovation of housing", he explains at the microphone of Europe 1. "But the criterion of 'summer comfort' is i.e. having these units renovated to be comfortable without air conditioning in the summer, is not considered at all in the renovations which focus only on reducing heat loss for the winter “, he regrets.
More intense forest fires against which appropriate means are needed
Adapting means, for example, raising a house to protect it from possible flooding, or greening a city to cool it down.
But it also means preparing to intervene in an emergency.
"There will be at least 30% more surface area affected by forest fires in France by 2050", warns Vivian Dépoues.
"The fire seasons will be much longer and the forces mobilized will have to hold out over time, but this is not integrated into the means given to the emergency services to prepare", laments the researcher.
Adapting finally means providing compensation.
On the French coast, the value of housing threatened by rising waters thus amounts to nearly eight billion euros according to the Center for Studies and Expertise on Risks (Cerema).
This value is obviously likely to fall in the decades to come, and therefore to weaken many owners who will consider themselves wronged, and will claim financial aid.