Paris, June 25, 2032. On the news of the largest French public television channel, a presenter announces the bad news: while the thermometer has already crossed 46 degrees this week, an alert predicts a peak of 50 degrees in the French capital . This is a deadly temperature for many residents.
This fictional scenario revealed by Paris City Hall on October 10 is the framework for a very real exercise which will take place on Friday, in the streets of the 13th and 19th arrondissements. Between 50 and 60 Parisians were invited to simulate a Paris at 50 degrees, with its share of difficulties, such as a possible power outage due to the massive use of air conditioners, the impossibility of transporting medicines or carry out repairs on site to protect the health of staff, and the urgency of sheltering a whole bunch of fragile people in cool places, who will not need power.
Lagging behind other countries
An almost real role-playing game which involves students, residents, police, firefighters, energy suppliers, social landlords, firefighters… “We are going to have residents of social buildings “play”; various and varied incidents will be simulated during this role play. safe,” explains Pénélope Komites, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Resilience and Foresight, during a press conference this Tuesday.
This scenario is far from being a distant reality, warns Serge Boulanger, secretary general of the Paris Defense and Security Zone: “2032 is tomorrow. Every week, we comment on record temperatures in the media. We are hugely behind the Nordic countries where almost all citizens are trained in first aid. » This October 10, 2023 when the mercury reaches 28 degrees, no need to push the envelope too far to convince. The effects of warming are already there, as Joseph Dupré la Tour, general commanding the Paris fire brigade, explains: “In certain neighborhoods with great precariousness, we have observed an increase in recent years in interventions on the upper floors. the highest. So can you imagine the impacts with 50 degrees? »
“There will be unforeseen events that day”
There’s no point transporting yourself too far back in time either. In 2021, a village in Canada, located at the same latitude as Paris, experienced a temperature of 49.5 degrees. Twenty-four hours later, the village was destroyed by fires caused by this extraordinary heatwave. “50 degrees won’t be normal but it could happen. And if the climate trajectory is not consistent [à la trajectoire préconisée par la communauté internationale], peaks of 50 degrees will occur during the second half of the century,” recalls Pénélope Komites. “All the efforts that we can make will not make it possible to reverse the trajectory, we must prepare for it”, specified in the preamble Emmanuel Grégoire, the First Deputy.
This exercise will allow the city to define a new resilience strategy, which can be presented to the Paris Council in 2024. In the meantime, the town hall is preparing with a certain curiosity, even excitement, for this unusual exercise. But Pénélope Komitès accepts it, and wants to be optimistic: “There will be unforeseen events that day, we will have to deal with that. This is a significant risk taken by the city, we hope that it will go well. But this will give a boost in terms of risk management. »