Paris heatwave fails to provide green cover

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Paris heatwave fails to provide green cover

PARIS: As a third heat wave baked France this week, the heat radiating from the asphalt outside the Garnier Opera house in Paris hit 56 degrees Celsius on urban planner Tangui Le Dantec'sLe Dantec's thermometer. The shade was non-existent, with barely a tree in sight.

The Place de l'Opera is one of many so-called urban heat islands in the French capital, lacking the trees that cool cities by providing shade and seen as a key line of defence against climate change and hot summers.

A minute's walk away, in the shade along the tree-lined Boulevard des Italiens, Le Dantec's thermometer gave a reading of 28 degrees Celsius.

There is a bit of a breeze immediately. You can breathe, Le Dantec, who founded Aux Arbres Citoyens, an action group opposed to tree felling.

Paris is ranked as a poor city in the world for its green cover. According to data from the World Cities Culture Forum, only 10 percent of Paris is made up of green space, such as parks and gardens, compared to London at 33 per cent and Oslo at 68 per cent.

Last month was the hottest July on record in France, according to the national weather agency Meteo France. The searing temperatures underscore the need to strengthen the capital's defences against global warming.

Paris City Hall wants to plant 170,000 trees by 2026 and wants to create islands of freshness. It is also ripping up the concrete in dozens of school yards and laying down soil and vegetation.

It's a massive tree and vegetation planting project that's underway, much bigger than under previous administrations, said Jacques Baudrier, deputy Paris mayor tasked with the green energy transition in buildings.

Some protests have been caused by City Hall's green ambitions. Le Dantec and other environmentalists say the local authorities have fallen scores of decades-old trees to make way for garden spaces.

The fall of mature trees runs counter to the authorities' ambitions as saplings are more vulnerable to drought and less useful in fighting heat radiation, green activists say.

In April, green activist Thomas Brail shot video of more than 70 trees being felled on the city's northern outskirts to make way for Mayor Anne Hidalgo's vision for a green belt around the city.

City Hall planners say Paris can't be redesigned to better deal with climate change without falling some trees.

Brail said these trees had a role to play.