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France ranks 2023 second-hottest year on record

France experienced its second-hottest year in 2023 with the average temperature only just below record heat the previous year, the national weather office said on Friday.

Published: 5 January 2024 16:12 CET

France ranks 2023 second-hottest year on record

A man walks past a pharmacy sign displaying the temperature reaching 40 degrees Celcius in Bordeaux, southwestern France on August 23, 2023 (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP)

“Following on from 2022, the hottest year in France since the start of the the 20th century, the year 2023 comes second,” said Meteo-France, which has been gathering average annual temperatures since 1900.

Temperatures last year stood at 14.4 degrees Celsius on average, compared to 14.5C in 2022, it added.

Europe’s climate monitor said last month that 2023 would be the hottest globally in recorded history after November became the sixth record-breaking month in a row.

The 2015 Paris climate accords aimed to limit global warming to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — and 1.5C if possible.

But the UN’s World Meteorological Organization said in November that 2023 data to the end of October showed that last year was already around 1.4C above the pre-industrial baseline.

Last year was also set to be the United Kingdom’s second warmest on record after 2022, the country’s meteorological service said on Tuesday.

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Vast France building project sunk by sea level rise fears

Conceived in the early 2010s, the development was to transform a strip of industrial wasteland between the River Orne and the canal linking Caen to the sea into 2,300 homes, as well as tens of thousands of square metres of office space.

But the construction “will not happen”, said Thibaud Tiercelet, director general of the “Caen Peninsula” planning society in charge of the “Nouveau Bassin” (New Basin) project.

In 2023, just as all the authorisations to start work on the project had been obtained, Tiercelet was alerted by a group of experts tasked with determining the impact of climate change on the Normandy region.

That group’s findings were stark enough to convince then-Caen mayor Joel Bruneau to sink the development.

“In 2017, the estimated rise in sea level was 20 centimetres by 2100,” Tiercelet recalled of the data.

But “in 2020 it was 60 centimetres, and in 2023 it was one metre”.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects a “likely” sea level rise of 40 to 80 centimetres by 2100.

READ MORE: MAPS: The parts of France set to be underwater as sea levels rise

But it also notes this estimate does not take into account poorly understood drivers that could push sea levels significantly higher, such as the rapid disintegration of the polar ice sheets.

In any case, the IPCC advises that urban planners in coastal cities “may wish to consider global-mean sea level rise above the assessed likely range”.

‘It will flood every week’

At present, the 17-kilometre-long strip, dubbed Caen’s “peninsula”, is only 70 centimetres above the canal’s water level.

“If the sea rises by one metre, it will flood here every week,” urban planner Tiercelet said.

While climate scientists stress that there is uncertainty about the extent and pace of the rise in water levels, the fact is that they will happen.

As for the level of the canal, it is currently regulated by a lock “which only has 50 centimetres of leeway at high tide”, noted Tiercelet.

So in a few decades, it may no longer be able to fulfil its role.

Plans for the development have been shelved as a result, with improvements to the promenade on the “peninsula” scheduled instead — pending a study into the water dynamics of the entire Orne river estuary.

‘Temporary uses’

Besides the project, the sea level rise projections also scuppered “the extension of the tramway and an access footbridge” to the strip, said Emmanuel Renard, vice-president for land use and development in the Caen-la-Mer urban community.

Renard said they were looking at “transitional urban planning for 40 years with temporary uses” for the area — which could include student housing or craft workshops on the land where disused warehouses are awaiting demolition.

As seawater rises more frequently through the estuary and groundwater, the strip’s freshwater ecosystem will gradually become saline and brackish.

READ MORE: MAP: The French towns at urgent risk from coastal erosion

The tree species that will soon be planted around the promenade, which is currently being cleaned up, have been chosen to suit this future ecosystem.

“It’s the end of a 170-year-old model, of the technological explosion that allowed the era of large-scale construction and mastery over our environment,” Tiercelet said.

“And now we’re going to have to adapt.”

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