Presentation
While stressing the urgency of the plan's publication by the new government, which is expected to take up the draft plan, this Policy Brief also looks at the plan's limitations and the scope for strengthening it without extending publication deadlines.
Key Messages
- The draft French National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (PNACC-3) has been the subject of substantial work to propose a document with a more structuring vision of adaptation than its predecessors. Although there are still a number of areas for attention, the publication of such a plan is urgently needed, to inform public policy from now on, so that we do not lag behind in the adaptation choices that sometimes commit us for decades to come.
- The draft plan lacks general objectives for different timeframes as well as a concrete action programme for the State, local authorities and to mobilize all sectors more systematically in adaptation programming, particularly the most vulnerable. Without delaying the publication of the PNACC, sectoral adaptation plans should be drawn up in the coming months, in coordination with the sectors, reflecting national guidelines, specifying a modus operandi and committing to a precise timeframe.
- Meanwhile, work will need to begin rapidly on the framework proposed by PNACC-3 in preparation for PNACC-4. Robust monitoring and evaluation must be put in place to track the contribution of measures to achieving adaptation objectives, the effective allocation of the resources needed to implement the plan and to identify the turning points that will require a fresh discussion of adaptation options. In addition, the choice of a reference warming trajectory of 4°C in 2100 is important for structuring adaptation around a common vision, but the discussion would benefit from being extended in future iterations to consider more pessimistic climate scenarios.
- The level of ambition required for adaptation calls for interministerial leadership at national level, which will have to be provided through strong political support by an institution capable of making adaptation a cross-cutting issue linked to mitigation and biodiversity issues, a role that the General Secretariat for Ecological Planning (SGPE) can embody. The same applies at regional level, where the French National Climate Change Adaptation Plan must be implemented; in this context, the regional COPs must bring together all the stakeholders involved in adaptation issues in order to make the necessary trade-offs.
