Louise Sallé 10:23 a.m., February 26, 2022
UN climate scientists - the IPCC - will release a report on the impacts of climate change on Monday.
Prior to this publication, French experts from the Institute of Climate Economics (I4CE), the High Council for Climate (HCC), and the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (Iddri) warn on France's unpreparedness in the face of extreme heat, flooding and rising sea levels.
For experts from the main French research centers on the socio-economic impacts of climate change - IDDRI, I4CE and HCC - 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.
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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.
"There has been a great acceleration in recent years, for example, aid for the thermal renovation of housing," he explains.
"But the criterion of 'summer comfort', that is to say ensuring that these dwellings are renovated to be comfortable without air conditioning in the summer, is not taken into account at all in the renovations that are taking place. focus only on reducing heat loss for the winter," he said.
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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.