The councilor for the Ecological Transition of Paris, Dan Lert, warned that the French capital will face heat peaks of up to 50 degrees Celsius and will have to rethink its architecture, its vegetation and remove 40% of the asphalt.
“We expect and predict very strong and very high heat spikes and 50-degree heat waves. The climate of Paris will resemble that of a city like Seville, in the south of Spain, for years to come,” Dan Lert said in a interview according to the EFE news agency, after a period in which France broke all-time temperature records at the end of summer.
According to the official, Paris is experiencing a “race against time” against the climate crisis and extreme heat waves are the “number one challenge” for the city.
To meet this challenge, which requires huge investments, Paris plans to plant 170,000 trees by 2026, eliminate parking spaces and transform them into green spaces by 2030, and eliminate 40% of asphalt.
“The idea is to go from a city that is like a radiator, which has an urban heat island effect, to a city that is an oasis,” Lert explained.
Residential buildings, in particular, will have to adapt, but the transformation raises important questions about the preservation of Parisian heritage, so closely linked to the aesthetics of the buildings.
“We have tin roofs in Paris that make Paris beautiful, but a tin roof has a temperature of 80 degrees. And when we have heat spikes of between 40 and 50 degrees, we need to insulate these buildings,” Dan Lert stressed.
Black roofs, for example, would concentrate less heat if they were painted in light colours, something that is already being done in some public buildings.
Work needed to improve interior insulation is sometimes hampered by heritage conservation permits and the councilor called on the Architects of Buildings of France to change their procedures and accept that “the landscape of Paris will change to protect itself.”
“An elderly person who lived under a roof without insulation was four times more likely to die from heat,” the official illustrated, based on studies on an intense heat wave in 2003.
The rhythms of the city will also have to change to take advantage of the cooler hours, added Lert.
More fountains, umbrellas and sprinklers across the city will also be essential, and are being rolled out this summer and in the run-up to summer 2024, which coincides with the Olympics.
The sporting event will also leave another legacy for a more livable city in periods of intense heat: fulfilling the promise made at the end of the 1980s by the then mayor, Jacques Chirac, to be able to bathe in the Seine River.
At the moment, it was not possible to carry out the tests in open waters and the triathlon scheduled for August, due to the rains and the levels of sujidade in the water, but the planned works, such as the tanks to store and purify the water, will make this scenario possible. next year.
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Source: TSF
