“38°C at night is no longer possible”… In Lyon, residents involved in a citizens’ convention on climate

The Lyon metropolitan area is one of the fastest-warming areas in metropolitan France. Around a hundred citizens were invited to take part in a joint discussion to try to find concrete solutions.

In Lyon, a Metropolitan Convention on Climate was launched on Friday, September 13. More than one hundred inhabitants out of the 1.4 million that make up the Metropolis were drawn at random to participate in this process that will lead them to work for five weekends until January on the theme of adaptation to heat. The Green executive promises that the citizens’ proposals will be taken into account, their citizen opinion will be added to the Territorial Climate Air Energy Plan (PCAET) that should be adopted next year.

In this representative citizens’ assembly, there are as many men as women, aged 16 to 80 and from all socio-professional categories. The question they are asked is clear: how do we deal with the increasing waves of heat waves and heat, in the context of climate change?

Ryan is in his twenties and realizes the importance of his presence. “I have always lived in Lyon, there have always been strong heat waves, we are in a basin with the Alps, we must try to see to find solutions”he testifies. According to the diagnoses carried out by the Lyon Metropolis, temperatures will increase locally by more than 4°C by 2100.

Karine, 55, thinks about future generations. “I would like us to achieve something for our climate, not just concrete, planting vegetation on buildings… We have lots of things to do.”

“When you have 35°C or 38°C at night, it’s no longer possible. I get up at 4am to go to work, but I don’t sleep at night, we really need to find solutions.”

Karine, 55 years old

to franceinfo

All these citizens will meet experts, conduct field visits, and ultimately invent responses adapted to their metropolis. “The President of the Republic, in his citizens’ climate convention, he used communication to hide his climate inaction. For us, it’s quite the opposite. We are taking very proactive action to adapt the territory.”defends Bruno Bernard, the ecologist president of the community. “If it is not applicable, it will not be applied, but I believe in collective intelligence and I think that we will have proposals that we will assess,” he concludes.