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PARIS (CN) — On a typical May afternoon in Paris, café terraces overflow with residents reveling in the sun, rolling up their sleeves to feel rays that rarely appear in the winter. Joggers tear down sidewalks and dog-walkers pause on corners to gaze at the sky. It feels like the city breathes a collective sigh of relief that the days are finally brighter.
On Friday, the scene was different; terraces were desolate as people crossed onto the shady side of sidewalks. In the 11th arrondissement, near the Place de la Bastille, a chalkboard sign advertising iced coffee and beer was placed outside a café, but the pace was devoid of customers. Shutters across the city were closed.
This is the eighth day of a record-breaking heat wave in France, where temperatures hit roughly 100 F in the southwest of the country — a nationwide first for May. At least seven people have died as a result of the heat — five indirectly from drowning — while disruptions have impacted schools and railway infrastructure.
“A heat wave of this magnitude in May — there is no precedent,” Gonéri Le Cozannet, a scientist at the French geological survey, said. “On the other hand, it’s one of the things we’ve known would be coming for a very long time: that heatwaves in France and almost everywhere in the world are becoming more intense, more frequent and the season during which they occur is extending.”
People are turning to the government, looking for answers on plans to protect vulnerable populations and infrastructure. During a news conference on Tuesday, the Minister for Ecological Transition Monique Barbut said “Everything is under control.”
But many experts, politicians and citizens would beg to differ. On Thursday evening under pressure from citizens and political opponents, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu met with ministers to devise a plan for the current heat wave. However, the results are unclear.
“While it’s true that unlike the U.S., we don’t have a government that is skeptical [of climate change], sufficient measures are not being taken and that’s part of the problem,” Nicolas Viovy, a researcher at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences known as LSCE, said. “Every time there’s a heat wave, we hear about all sorts of measures … It restarts the debate, and then, since the heat wave doesn’t last very long, we return to normal afterward and move on to something else.”
On Friday afternoon, Fathi Sahli was sitting at the counter of his menswear shop in Paris. Although a fan was pointed at his seat, it wasn’t turned on; he explained that while the heatwave is unusual for May, there’s a slight breeze, which isn’t often the case in summer months. While commending some of the government’s efforts to reduce pollution — like reducing car traffic in favor of bikes — he said it’s not enough.
“Now, if something’s wrong, they do nothing,” he said, standing up from his seat. “Then in 20 years they say ‘Ahhhh!’ they wake up.”
Marine Tondelier, the national secretary of France’s Green party and its 2027 presidential candidate, would likely agree. She expressed concern Wednesday over Lecornu’s decision to hold a ministerial meeting one week into the heat wave.
“After several days of this heat wave, they take stock to prepare for the next ones,” she told local outlet Franceinfo. “But we still don’t understand what they’re doing about this heat wave now — it’s quite reprehensible.”
The issue of schools has been particularly urgent, and somewhat unique to this episode; usually when temperatures spike, students are on summer break. In France, most schools aren’t built to manage extremes; the Snes-FSU secondary school teacher union reported that temperatures climbed above 86 F in over 77% of classrooms on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
“For the children, it’s very problematic,” Viovy said. “There are even some municipalities that have had to close schools.”
Nathalie Cesare, a shopkeeper near the Place de la Bastille, was sitting at her counter on Friday afternoon. She said this heat wave has been “really hard” on her and was surprised it hit so early in the year; these days, she’s struggling to get sleep.
But she’s more concerned for her “very old parents” who “suffer very much” in the heat; they don’t have air conditioning, which is the nationwide norm. The environmental agency ADEME estimates that only between 18% and 26% of French households have a unit. Cesare wishes the government would do more to help her parents.
“[The government] didn’t anticipate anything,” she said. “It would be good if there would be some help for people to install ACs … With climate change it’s going to be so bad, this is just the beginning of what’s to come.”
Le Cozannet cautions that although French leaders recognize the dangers of global warming, current U.S. climate policies could still have an impact on its goals, particularly through businesses. Companies operating in both places are being confronted with the decision of whether to move forward with energy transition plans or follow the U.S. back toward oil and gas.
“It actually creates what we call transition risks, which are risks for companies because they don’t really know where things are headed,” he said. “That’s the case with TotalEnergies, for example, which has made choices to align with the current United States government.”
For a climate scientist, Le Cozannet added, this is alarming.
“For us, it’s very dangerous because we know very well that every fraction of a degree of additional climate change means additional risks,” he said.
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