Is Paris in danger of becoming unlivable? The heat peaks will be more and more numerous in the capital, and temperatures could regularly reach 50 degrees by the end of the century. A recent study published in the scientific journal The Lancet Planetary Health even qualifies Paris as the city in which “we are most at risk of dying from heat”, with an excess mortality rate of 1.6 times higher for people over 85 during episodes of intense heat.
The subject has just been the subject of a report, published by the information and evaluation mission of the city of Paris. This thick 230-page document details 85 proposals to enable the city to fight against heat waves. “The risk that Paris will overheat and become uninhabitable in the medium term is real”, warn the elected officials in particular.
Greening the city
Paris is a particularly dense and mineral city, 80% urbanized. The use of materials such as concrete, stone or asphalt “generate an additional increase in temperature of up to 8 or 10 ° C compared to its surroundings, especially at night”, according to the report. To stop the phenomenon, elected officials recommend continuing the revegetation efforts already undertaken by the town hall, in particular by replacing the bitumen with grass.
The report also proposes to go further, and to set up a “green oasis” in each district of the capital, drawing inspiration from the work carried out in Spanish cities such as Seville. These islands of freshness, which make it possible to drastically drop temperatures in the event of a heat wave, are still rare in Paris. The city has only 3.3 square meters of green space per inhabitant, while the WHO recommends 12.
Renovate the building
In the columns of the newspaper The world, the elected MoDem Maud Lelièvre, rapporteur for the report, calls for a “second Haussmann revolution”. Parisian buildings are not very resilient to high temperatures. To adapt the building, there are many proposals: greening the roofs or painting them white, imposing a minimum ceiling height of 2.70 m in all dwellings, installing shutters and pergolas…
To launch this renovation campaign, the rapporteur advises the city to appeal to public procurement. The idea would be to add a clause called “ICU”, for “Urban heat island” in contracts with the building sector, in order to promote greening and effective insulation of buildings.
Developing a “Big Hot” Plan
In an exceptional situation, an exceptional response. The document proposes the creation of a “Very hot” plan, on the model of the “Very cold” plan. It would organize access to shelters for the homeless and for people whose accommodation would no longer be habitable in periods of high heat. A map of places where Parisians could cool off has also been proposed to the municipality.
All these proposals and recommendations will be studied in the coming months. They could be added to two texts, which are currently being revised by the Paris Council, namely the Local Urban Plan and the Climate Plan, which should be voted on in June and July.