Faced with the expected rise in temperatures and more frequent, more intense extreme situations, the layout of buildings and public spaces in Paris must be redesigned. The City of Paris and Paris & Co present the findings from eleven innovative projects, being tested since 2017, to help the city adapt to climate challenge.

Environmental and solidarity issues are central to public policies in Paris. The resilience strategy, adopted in September 2017, aims to prepare the city and its inhabitants for major present and future shocks and stresses such as flooding, air pollution and inequalities. The Climate Plan, adopted after extensive consultation, aims to make Paris a carbon neutral city, converted to renewable energy by 2050.

Led by Urban Lab, Paris & Co's experimental laboratory, in partnership with the City of Paris, the “Adapting to climate change” experiment programme was deployed in 2017 to mobilize the innovation ecosystem and encourage new solutions. Associations, entrepreneurs and experts were invited to innovate in four priority areas: cooling the city, modular spaces, strengthening social ties and water saving.

Eleven projects were selected to receive support from the City of Paris and Urban Lab, with support also from ADEME, the Paris Climate Agency (Agence Parisienne du Climat), the Paris water utility (Eau de Paris) and the 100 Resilient Cities network. All projects were assessed to measure their effectiveness, feasibility and sustainability.

The findings from these experiments are presented in the notebook “Adapting to climate change (S’adapter au changement climatique)” which gives 6 key actions:

•  Raising consumer awareness of water issues and taking action to preserve this resource;
•  Building a greener, more permeable and more modular city
•  Encouraging and facilitating social ties;
•  Supporting the “commons” movement;
•  Making the changes practical, visible and attractive;
•  Supporting project leaders to ensure they have the conditions for success

“We are working with great enthusiasm with Paris & Co’s Urban Lab to invent new solutions and ways of doing things, as is the case for adapting to the effects of climate change”, comments Jean-Louis Missika, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of urban planning and architecture. “Every year now, we are confronted with unprecedented climatic events: flooding, heat waves and droughts succeed each other on a regular basis. Faced with this situation, we must innovate and find new solutions that respect our environment”, said Célia Blauel, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of the Climate.

“The summary of the evaluation of the “Adapting to climate change” programme highlights the steps taken by the eleven projects, the results obtained, and the obstacles and success factors encountered. Because experimenting above all means accepting the process and the iterations, and taking a step back to identify mistakes, good practice and levers for development” says Marion Apaire, project manager at Urban Lab.

Download the summary of the evaluation “Adapting to climate change”

Information source: Press release, 20 September 2018 - City of Paris; Paris & Co

See the press release (PDF)

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