You could say it’s a good sense of timing. While Météo-France has just announced that 31 degrees could be reached next Friday in the capital, the Paris City Hall presents its plan of attack against heat waves.
New fountains and shadehouses, roofs painted white on certain equipment, misters… A set of immediate measures – complementary to a long-term approach to deal with the climate crisis – that 20 minutes Dan Lert, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of ecological transition.
Canopies to lose 9 to 10 degrees
Shade first, to lower temperatures. In parallel with its tree plan which provides for thousands of plantations, which will necessarily take a little time to hatch, the town hall will install 24 new shade houses in squares, public facilities, or even Parisian gardens. New furniture which will be added to the hundred shadehouses already present, according to the town hall. Devices with a steel frame and a perforated wooden roof that provide 30 m2 of shade on the ground and drop the thermometer by 9 to 10 degrees.
Shade shelters that seem to appeal to Parisians: thanks to a QR code on this new street furniture, 200 people expressed their opinion and among them, 75% found the shade shelters “useful” and 71% “well integrated into the Parisian aesthetic”, according to the town hall.
The transformed Wallace Fountains
Then refresh with water. The town hall plans to install ten more misters and 40 (smaller) misting fountains. For the latter, it will either be a question of transforming the good old Wallace fountains by a discreet addition (19 of them will experience this facelift, out of a hundred existing ones) or of bringing in new, more modern fountains: 16 new “Mât Source”, green columns where you can fill your water bottle or spray yourself with a small cloud of mist; and five “Totems”, in stainless steel.
A device that adds to the network of 800 committed merchants where you can recharge your water bottle for free, specifies the Paris City Hall, who published a map where you can see them:
The roof of a nativity scene painted white
“These questions of adaptation are a race against time, local authorities need clear choices. The Minister has debated a scenario at plus four degrees, this must be translated into action. You have to accept that the face of Paris evolves, changes, to adapt. More than a third of our projects are stopped by the architects of the buildings of France, there are places where it is forbidden to install shutters, ”comments Dan Lert.
The city services have just started experiments where the city repaints surfaces white, such as the roof of a crèche, or the coatings of certain streets in schools. What gain three to six degrees. New “oasis courtyards” will also be created, that is to say debited and transformed into cool islands.
“The climate will resemble that of Seville”
The idea for this plan begins to germinate in November 2021, with a study on climate projections in Paris. IPCC scientists then alerted the town hall to the probability of a heat peak of 50 degrees, which could happen as early as 2030. Battle rush: elected officials get active and launch the “MIE Paris 50 degrees”, a mission of information which unveiled its recommendations last April. On the executive side, we are working on the most urgent measures, especially since the summer of 2022, with thirty-three days of heat wave, the second hottest that France has known, plays the role of spur .
“Climate change is a reality in Paris which is accelerating, as in the rest of the territory, warns Dan Lert. In our projections there will be more than 35 days of heat wave per year in 2080. The climate will resemble that of Seville. There is an urgent need to accelerate adaptation in the face of climate peril by drawing inspiration from the cities of Southern Europe”.
Long-term measures
This “adaptation plan for the heat episodes of summer 2023” is therefore in reality only a milestone in a much broader strategy, started by the 2018 Climate plan, and continued by the Paris mission at 50 degrees and the so-called “bioclimatic” local urban plan (PLU). In particular, it includes more energy renovations of buildings, dewatering of soils and a target of 300 hectares of additional green space to reach the 10 square meters per inhabitant recommended by the World Health Organization.
But will these measures be enough to cool us off this summer, even though Paris is singled out as the deadliest city in Europe in the event of a heat wave? Monday in the Council of Paris, when voting for the new PLU, several opposition groups underlined the effects of the policy taken in recent years, while Anne Hidalgo declared ten years ago to want to “densify” the city. “You have created heat islands like the Place de la République”, reproached for example Maud Gatel, president of the Elected MoDem, Democrats and Ecologists of Paris, while Rachida Dati, head of the group Changer Paris (LR) criticized the “destruction of green spaces for the benefit of mineral developments”.
Not sure that a few fountains and shadehouses will compete with kilometers of concrete. To see a Paris that is more welcoming and above all cooler in summer, and that the city goes from the status of “radiator” to that of “oasis”, as Dan Lert wants, we will probably have to wait a little longer.