Heatwave: Grégoire admits that Paris has "not done enough yet"

"At the Paris City Hall, we ourselves erred a little in talking about mitigation and adaptation by 2050" in the capital where the climate "will one day resemble that of Seville," the mayor explained in an interview with Le Monde.

"We cannot continue for twenty-five years without taking even more action now," adds Anne Hidalgo's former first deputy. According to him, the City's 2024-2030 climate plan has had an effect "on reducing our environmental footprint," "but we have not yet done enough in managing heat waves, especially of the magnitude of the one we are currently experiencing."

The challenge now is to "win the battle of building renovation," particularly that of schools, of which only "200 out of 600" have been renovated, explains the mayor, who has purchased 1.200 mobile air conditioners to urgently equip schools.

"I accept this paradigm shift. It's about being pragmatic" given that "the pace of investment and renovation will take too long to deploy to respond to the social emergency imposed by the heat waves."

Individual air conditioning "is a plague," Mr. Grégoire emphasizes, calling on public authorities "to act quickly" and "provide alternative tools," otherwise "people will buy their own air conditioner and install it however they can at home because it is unbearable."

Heat waves are "still too often thought of as isolated incidents and not as a structural phenomenon that is likely to recur," according to the mayor, who believes that "we need to move beyond collective denial."

He will personally bring together on Monday "the Paris Public Hospitals Assistance (APHP), nursing home managers, the private sector, energy and transport network managers around the development of a trajectory for adapting to climate change".

The Socialist mayor is also calling for a "social conference" to be organized with experts, social partners and the government in order to adapt working hours during heat waves.