3rd SCO France Congress: Observe, Cooperate, Act

The most likely climate scenario, known as TRACC (see opposite), puts France, which is warming faster than other countries, on a trajectory from +2°C in 2030 to +4°C in 2100. Based on this scenario, the speakers discussed the third PNACC, France’s National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, which was unveiled three days before the Congress. Aimed at better integrating future climate considerations into public and economic decision-making, this third PNACC marks a paradigm shift resulting directly from broad public awareness. It provides a single entry point to direct local authorities to the relevant offerings of various state operators, it will be enshrined in the Environment Code. With a budget of €1.6 billion, its guiding principle is: "not one euro for projects that are not resilient to the future climate". Overall, the discussions emphasized the need to anticipate in order to adapt all regions and all sectors. Particular attention was drawn to the road and electricity networks - systems not usually associated with climate action, yet critical under the projected conditions.

TRACC, the reference warming trajectory for adapting to climate change

By 2100, at +4°C in France, this scenario would increase the risk of heatwaves by a factor of 10 compared with today, with heatwaves lasting 40 to 60 days, compared with 15 at present. With an increase in precipitation in winter and a decrease in summer, such a change of pace would lead to a risk of flooding and drought 40% more likely than in 2025, when sea levels would rise by 70 to 80 cm, with the associated risk of marine submersion. 

Météo-France is offering new tools to help everyone adapt: Climadiag commune for every region and every citizen, Climadiag chaleur en ville and Climadiag Agriculture.

Benoît THOME, Director of Institutional Relations, Météo France: "To monitor climate change and improve weather forecasting, Météo-France's ARPEGE model assimilates 33 million data items every day, including 30 million from satellites".

Diane SIMIU, Director of Climate, Energy Efficiency and Air, the French Ministry for the Ecological Transition: "Adapting does not mean giving up [on the 2°C of the Paris Agreement]. The PNACC includes 52 measures and more than 200 concrete actions [to] protect people, essential infrastructure and services in the regions, as well as our cultural and natural heritage".

Baptiste PERRISSIN-FABERT, Acting Deputy Director General, ADEME: "Over the last ten years, many local authorities have faced the effects of climate change and realized they need to take on this cross-cutting and territorial issue. [...] Space provides the data needed todiagnose and act accordingly, as shown by the SCO Thermocity and Sat4BDNB projects".

Pascal BERTEAUD, Director General, CEREMA: "You get what we pay for [...] we have everything we need to succeed. [...] The Local Climate Zones maps developed through the SCO SatLCZ project have provided urban areas with a clear vision of urban heat islands, to guide planning decisions. Without satellite data, available uniformly across the country and in a real-time, this wouldn't be possible".

With Barbara POMPILI, Special Envoy of the President of the French Republic for the One Water Summit, Ambassador for the Environment, and Olivier POIVRE D'ARVOR, Ambassador for the Poles and Maritime Issues, Special Envoy of the President of the French Republic for the United Nations Ocean Conference.

• The Principality of Monaco, represented by Her Excellency Mrs Valérie BRUELL-MELCHIOR, Ambassador of Monaco to France, accompanied in image 1 by Jean-Marc ASTORG, Laurence MONNOYER-SMITH, Frédéric BRETAR and, on her right, Anne-Marie DESCOTES.
• BRGM, represented by Caroline RICORDEL, Director of the Subsoil Knowledge and Geomodelling Division, and INERIS, represented by Augustin COLETTE, Head of the Atmospheric Modelling and Environmental Mapping Unit, both accompanied on image 2 by Laurence MONNOYER-SMITH and Frédéric BRETAR, in charge of the SCO for CNES.

Gilles KLEITZ, Deputy Director of Science, IRD: "At the heart of extreme North/South tensions, satellites give legitimacy to data. [As a partner in several SCO projects,] the IRD uses satellite data to decipher and analyze the interactions between environmental parameters and societal dynamics".

Yasmine GALLOUL, Deputy Head of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department, Expertise France: "With a presence in 150 countries, we can see that countries in the South face major challenges in accessing and using environmental data - lack of infrastructure and governance framework, dependence on foreign data - [which hinders both their sovereignty and their economic development".

Aboubaker HASSAN, Secretary General,Ministry of Higher Education and Research in Djibouti, head of Djibouti's space programme, and member of the SCO since October 2024: "We face a huge challenge in raising awareness, not only among political leaders but also within the local population, who must understand that many of the issues they face - hunger, thirst, disease, etc. - can be fully resolved through remote sensing and space sciences which they often criticize due to funding priorities".

Alix ROUMAGNAC, President, Predict Services: "For early warning, has become immensely important. [Powered by COSPARIN rainfall data updated every 30 minutes,] the warning system developed under the SCO Gade Lapli project [anticipates] flood-prone areas enabling timely evacuations before heavy rainfall. Deployed in Haiti, we are now implementing it in other countries".

"All trees are good for people, but not necessarily for air quality."

Pierre SICARD, ACRI-ST, GreenSpace project to map all urban trees and assess their influence on pollution, identify areas to be renatured and determine which species should be prioritized.

"Mapping the Southern Territories means giving them a memory and a way of protecting themselves for the future."

Diane ESPEL, University of Rennes, Cartovege project to plan actions to restore or preserve natural habitats and biodiversity in the French Southern Territories.

"The first step in providing a solution for local communities is to understand the phenomenon and monitor it in real time."

Marc LUCAS, CLS, SeSaM project to detect sargassum seaweeds in the ocean and predict beach landings  up to three months in advance.

"Beyond integrating data, the SCO has enabled us to implement an interface that transfers knowledge into decision-making."

Anis GUELMAMI, Tour du Valat, AionWetland project to automate the monitoring of Mediterranean wetlands with, in addition, indicators of environmental pressures along with recommendations for conservation or restoration.