As the consequences of global warming become increasingly apparent, governments now face a dual challenge: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to curb the scale of climate change, but also to prepare societies for current impacts and future damage. France's national court of audit's annual report, published on Tuesday, March 12, is devoted almost entirely to this second point, that of adapting to change. This crucial aspect has long been neglected in French environmental policies.

Over the course of the 725-page report, France's top audit institution examined the delays on the part of the State, local authorities and businesses in this area. "Awareness of the urgent need to adapt is very real, but it varies from sector to sector," said Pierre Moscovici, president of the national court of audit, who described a "colossal" challenge and urged political leaders to act. "The government is not properly playing its role as strategist, which consists of setting clear objectives and defining a trajectory to achieve them," he said.

Even though Europe has been hard hit by the climate crisis over the past two years, with heatwaves and droughts following one another in quick succession, France has not risen to the challenge, the court says. Throughout the 16 thematic chapters – on cities, transport networks, forests, the army, coastlines, health, banking and finance – the government's absences and silences are the main constant.

On a major subject like real estate, the first national climate change adaptation plan (2011-2015) "received no concrete support other than funding for research." The second plan (2018-2022) merely disseminated measures on the subject under "cross-cutting headings." "The issue of adapting to change (...) does indeed first require political choices to be made, in all areas of public action," the report reads. The pressure from the court comes at a time when Christophe Béchu, the French minister for environmental transition, is due to put out for consultation the third national plan for adaptation to climate change "in April," before a presentation "in the summer." On Monday evening, Béchu welcomed the report's "pertinent proposals" and promised that they "will be able to shed light on the most relevant financing options for adaptation."

To prepare France for a 4°C warming by 2100, the hypothesis adopted by the government, the list of projects is immense: relocation of buildings affected by rising sea levels, thinking about new cereal crops and conflicts of use due to lack of water. Faced with the large number of sectors concerned, amid the tangle of competencies and time frames, France's national court of audit calls on the government to engage in genuine "planning."

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