“France is not ready for current events and even more so for those to come”. This is essentially the message delivered, Wednesday, August 31, by climatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte to the government. This co-president of the IPCC, the intergovernmental group of experts on climate change, was the guest of the government seminar devoted to ecology. An intervention that comes at the right time, after the scorching summer that France experienced.
In her presentation, some twenty pages of graphics that franceinfo has obtained, the scientist first insists on the fact that “this summer 2022 in France” is “emblematic of worsening consequences of climate change”. She quotes “hottest summer behind 2003”a “drought more widespread than in 1976 and 2003” as well as “major fires”of the “sea heat waves” and “the retreat of the guards”.
In all transparency, here are the key points of my presentation #climate at the government back-to-school seminar
⬇️
1/… pic.twitter.com/T2V9SYG5bP— Dr. Valérie Masson-Delmotte (@valmasdel) September 1, 2022
The one who is also a member of the High Council for the Climate, an independent body responsible for evaluating French climate policy, then recalls that “despite growing climate action”, greenhouse gas emissions are breaking world records. She explains that 100% of the warming observed today is the result of human activity and that it has already reached 1.7°C in France and 1.1°C on a global scale.
The climatologist points out that the level of warming will be determined by future emissions. “Each increment of additional warming intensifies major risks, in every region of the world” and “intensifies the degradation of ecosystems and the risks of biodiversity loss”summarizes Valérie Masson-Delmotte.
In front of this situation, “Now is the time to act, every decision counts”, hammered the ministers the climatologist, who recalls that the challenge for France is to double its rate of reduction of emissions, currently insufficient. She notes that “action levers are available in each sector”, “including strategies promoting low-carbon lifestyles”.
Beyond the measures taken to limit future warming, Valérie Masson-Delmotte spoke to the government about the need to take measures to adapt to the effects already observed. “The gaps are widening between the necessary adaptation measures and those that are actually implemented”, she notes. At the end of her presentation, the scientist lists a whole series of obstacles to overcome, including “the perception of the urgency to act”them “Issues of equity and just transition” and… the “political will, exemplarity and leadership of institutions, collective dynamics”.