Paris is experiencing a ‘time trial’ against the climate crisis that will cause the French city Temperatures of up to 50 degrees and a climate similar to “the climate of a city like Seville”and that means rethinking its architecture, greening it on a large scale and Remove 40% of your asphaltAs Dan Lert, member of the Ecological Transition council of the Paris consortium, has pointed out.
Lert told Efe: “We expect and foresee very strong, very high temperature peaks and heat waves of 50 degrees. In the coming years, the climate in Paris will resemble that of a city like Seville in the south of Spain.” An interview after a summer season when France broke all-time temperature records at the end of summer.
According to the ecologist councilor responsible for the city’s climate plan, water and energy, lExtreme heatwave city’s ‘number one’It is very densely populated and its architecture is very mineralized.
The last historical temperature record was 42.6 degrees in July 2019, and the summer of 2022 was the summer with the most hot days (22). However, research by the French Intergovernmental Group of Climate Change Experts (GIEC) shows that this number will decrease in the future, with summers coming in at about 34 heatwaves a year.
In this context, Paris has no other choice. they transform to lower their temperatureAccording to Lert, to become a more livable city even in heat waves.
Paris to plant 170,000 trees and create white roofs
To meet this challenge, which requires multi-million dollar investments, Paris plans to plant 170,000 trees by 2026. removal of parking spaces and conversion to green spaces It’s on the 2030 horizon and is suppressing 40% of its asphalt.
“The goal is to get out of here A city like a radiator, This creates an urban heat island effect on a city that was an oasis,” says Lert.
Another key measure concerns the city’s architecture, whose buildings are poorly insulated and ready for high temperatures.
“We want to move from a city with a ‘heat island’ effect like a radiator to a city like an oasis”
Especially, adapting residential buildingshowever, the transformation raises important questions regarding the preservation of Parisian heritage, linked to the aesthetics of the Haussman buildings (named after Baron Haussmann, who was responsible for renovating the villa in the 19th century).
“In Paris we have tin roofs that make Paris beautiful, but the temperature on a tin roof is 80 degrees. And when there are heat peaks of 40 to 50 degrees Celsius, we need to insulate these buildings,” says Lert.
For example, black roofs concentrate less heat planted or painted in light colorsThis is already being done in some public buildings, such as nurseries or libraries, so that temperatures drop between 3 and 6 degrees.
However, the necessary work to improve the isolation inside is sometimes stopped due to permits to protect the heritage.
“We beg the Building Architects of France to change the urban doctrine of Paris. Paris landscape will change to protect itself‘ says the mayor.
“An elderly person living under an uninsulated roof was 4 times more likely to die from the heat,” he cites studies of the intense heatwave of 2003.
Lert predicts that the rhythms of the city will have to change to take advantage of the cooler hours. Therefore, for example, parks must be accessible at night and cities must protect the homeless from the heat, just as in winter.
More fountains, umbrellas and water sprayers It will also be important around the city and is already being implemented this summer and the summer of 2024, which will be the Olympic Games.
This appointment will also leave another foundational legacy for a more livable city under intense heat: the fulfillment of the promise made by then-mayor Jacques Chirac at the end of the 80s. To bathe in the Seine.
At the open water and triathlon events scheduled for this August, this is currently not possible due to rains and water pollution. But Lert promises that planned work, such as large cisterns to store and purify water, will make this possible by 2024. “There is no plan B,” he stresses.