This French island is heavily threatened by global warming in Europe.
Mega forest fires, dry lakes, heatwaves in cities… The consequences of climate change have accelerated in recent years in France, with increasingly frequent and intense events. According to an alarming new report from the NGO Climate Action Network, published on September 19, 2024, France is the European country most at risk of coastal flooding due to rising waters and erosion caused by climate change. Concrete consequences could be particularly observable on this island of the very popular metropolis.
With its 5,800 kilometres of coastline, metropolitan France is at great risk. In a worst-case scenario, coastal areas in the seaside regions of Normandy, Brittany, Pays de la Loire, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Corsica and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur are at risk of being submerged due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion. An island renowned for its unspoiled wilderness and fine sandy beaches, the one nicknamed the “luminous island”, risks being literally wiped off the map: it is the island of Oléron, in Charente-Maritime.
It is a very dark scenario that is gradually taking shape on this island, which is particularly subject to submersion and the strongest erosion in Europe: each year in Oléron, the sea is eating away at the sand a little more, its southern coast has already reached a retreat of 10%. 20 meters per year since the 1960s. By the end of the century, sea levels could rise by up to 75 centimeters and engulf its neighborhoods.
The NGO's report estimates the number of people living in these risk areas, at like the inhabitants of the island of Oléron, the island of Re, Saint-Malo, the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel and even the banks of Bordeaux and Bayonne, increasing from 900,000 people today to 1.7 million by the end of the century. At the same time, the average warming observed in France, which is currently +1.9°C, could reach +4°C by 2100, with the report highlighting that temperatures could reach 50°C.
But it is still possible to limit the effects of climate change on the French landscape, provided that we take serious care of it… According to Benjamin Crettenand, co-author of the report, “the main way to combat the impact is to limit our greenhouse gas emissions to on a collective scale.