Paris under 50 degrees? What was for the moment a nightmare scenario asserts itself as a sad truth. Climate change caused by human activities has dramatic consequences in the short, medium and long term. Among its consequences, the risk of dying of heat in France has drastically increased.
According to the 6th summary published by the IPCC in March 2023, the “hottest years we have experienced so far will be among the coolest within a generation”, reports TF1. This assertion is confirmed by numerous studies, in particular the one published in April 2023 by The Lancet. According to the researchers, Paris is “the city with the highest risk” of heat-related mortality in Europe for “all ages”.
The researchers based their study on heat death cases, between 2000 and 2019, in 854 cities in 30 European countries. Each year, extreme heat kills 20,173 people in Europe. These are around 1,388 deaths in France each year. Which is more than in Portugal (529) and Greece (738), but less than in Italy (5,034).
Conversely, there are 17,730 deaths caused by low temperatures in France each year. If for the moment the cold kills more than the heat, this trend could be reversed with climate change. Extreme temperature differences will particularly affect people over the age of 65.
According to the IPCC, from the years 2030-2035, global warming caused by human activity will reach 1.5°C. There is therefore a little less than ten years left for European states to find solutions for life in large cities below 50°C.
Based on the study of The Lancet and on the projections of researchers from climatology laboratories gathered by Le Figaro, here are the 10 cities in France where the risk of dying from heat is the highest.