Launch of a national consultation on France's plan to adapt to global warming

Travelling to Eveux (Rhône) to meet flood victims, he presented the third National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change (PNACC-3).

This plan must "bring into line all the levers of government action" and "must take into account our strategies in terms of biodiversity, protected areas, wetlands, the issue of health linked to the environment and the steps taken for agriculture and forestry with farmers", Mr Barnier summed up.

Protection of the country's cultural heritage against floods and heat, working conditions, public health, school operations, civil service, insurance, housing, prisons, electronic communications, artificial intelligence...: a wide range of human activities are concerned.

A concrete example of what many French people can expect: the flood victims met by the Prime Minister on Friday in a commercial area of ​​Givors, in the Rhône, devastated by the bad weather of October 17 and 18.

51 measures

"The water rose in 3 hours and 30 minutes, a large part of the city was flooded," said Mayor Mohamed Boudjella. "400 homes" were affected, as well as "110 businesses," he explained to AFP, stressing that the city's inhabitants have "low incomes" and "rebuilding their lives will take a long time."

Michel Barnier indicated that the list of municipalities classified as being in a state of natural disaster would be revealed next week.

The plan submitted for public consultation is designed based on the hypothesis of a warming of 4°C in France by the end of the century compared to the pre-industrial era (compared to 1,7°C at this stage).

It is based on a reference warming trajectory for adaptation to climate change (TRACC) of +2°C in 2023, +2,7°C in 2050 and +4°C in 2100, knowing that each additional tenth of a degree brings its share of disasters and heat waves.

Expected since the end of 2023, it has been constantly pushed back by various political deadlines.

It includes 51 measures around five main axes: protecting populations, insuring risks, adapting human activities, protecting natural and cultural spaces, mobilizing the vital forces around this challenge.

"Electroshock"

The first measure announced on Friday consists of increasing the Barnier fund, created in 75 by the current occupant of Matignon, then Minister of the Environment, by 2025 million euros in 1995, to bring it to 300 million.

This public fund allows local authorities, small businesses and individuals to finance work to reduce the vulnerability of buildings exposed to natural disasters.

Recently, the president of France Assureurs, Florence Lustman, called for an end to the "hold-up on the Barnier fund", estimating that it should have been increased to "approximately 450 million euros for 2025", compared to a stable level of 225 million euros initially planned in the draft finance bill under discussion in Parliament.

"The State is not giving itself the means to implement a real policy of protection and prevention in the area of ​​natural disasters," France Assureurs reiterated on Friday in a statement sent to AFP.

Each year between 2009 and 2020, this fund financed around 700 prevention operations for a total of more than two billion euros, according to a report from the Central Reinsurance Fund (CCR).

This plan must be "an electroshock in our adaptation", summarizes Vivian Dépoues, researcher at the Institute of Economics for Climate. "This must trigger in all sectors and among elected officials a real +adaptation reflex+ to prepare a France for +4°C".

"PNACC-3 will be in vain without adequate financial resources, particularly for the most vulnerable," worries Anne Bringault, director of programs for the Climate Action Network.

"Adaptation cannot be based on everyone for themselves, nor on a State passing the buck to local authorities while cutting off their funding," she adds, while the government is asking for an effort of 5 billion euros from local authorities in its 2025 budget project, which also provides for a cut of 1,5 billion in the Green Fund, intended to finance their ecological transition projects.

The director of advocacy at WWF France, Jean Burkard, deplored the fact that the plan provides for "neither a leader nor funding", believing that "without a head and without legs", it "will never be able to be deployed".