A year after the storm Alex and following a summer marked by numerous fires and floods, the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis, already heavily involved in the fight against climate change, notably with its Climate Plan, is strengthening its action to build a resilient metropolitan territory for tomorrow.
This acceleration in the fight against climate change, combined with protection and adaptation measures for all citizens, has become a major concern.
After announcing significant measures to protect and enhance the coastline, Christian Estrosi presented a reinforced action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and a revision of the Metropolitan Local Urban Plan to address climate challenges, just days before the Transition Forum to be held next week in Nice.
Claiming to have undertaken significant measures since 2008 to make Nice the green city of the Mediterranean, today, facing the worrying forecasts of climatologists, the Mayor/President (everything is interconnected within the territory) wants to intensify the fight against climate change to protect the population.
And, as a goal that isn’t quantified is not a goal, here are the reference parameters:
55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.
To complete the analysis and set the starting point, it’s important to remember that 46% of emissions are due to mobility, 30% to buildings, and 7% to waste.
Thus, to change the situation, there is a need to intervene at 360% with targeted and coordinated actions.
Concerning the sustainable development of the territory, the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis has decided to revise the PLUm with several key decisions such as:
Further limiting the urbanization of hills and valleys;
Making the soil more permeable with a goal of no net artificial land on the whole Metropolis;
Creating a stormwater master plan to prevent urban runoff and flood risks;
Equipping new buildings with electric charging terminals in 80% of parking spaces…
On the scale of the City of Nice, numerous greening and reforestation operations are planned with the aim of developing an additional 70 hectares of cooling zones through several projects such as:
The Grand landscape park of the Var plain of 20 hectares;
The extension of the Promenade du Paillon by 8 hectares;
The delivery of green corridors on the West-East axes of the city center (from Grosso to Carabacel).
Regarding mobility, two objectives by 2026:
100% decarbonized buses;
100% clean municipal vehicles.
To go even further, incentive measures will be adopted, such as:
A trade-in bonus of €1,000 to support owners of crit’air 5 vehicles;
The removal of 70% of traffic lights in the city center as of 2022;
The trial of a 30 km/h zone between Avenue Jean Médecin and Boulevard Carabacel;
Accelerating the policy of creating park-and-ride facilities;
The creation of a new master plan for the deployment of electric charging stations.
To support the people of Nice in ecological building renovation, the Metropolis has created a One-Stop Renovation Shop and will double its support for transitioning oil-fired boilers in 2022.
Christian Estrosi will also gather the major co-ownerships and tertiary sector actors around a large roundtable in the fall to define an ambitious plan for renovation and energy consumption reduction.
Finally, the Metropolis is taking several measures related to waste prevention and management, aiming to reduce the total volume and better valorize the remaining waste. For this purpose:
A campaign with Nice merchants “Zero Plastics Horizon” will be launched;
The Metropolis will present the new local program for household waste prevention from 2022-2026;
The Metropolis will modernize the Energy Recovery Facility and create a packaging sorting center within it to ensure total autonomy in processing by 2026.
Ultimately, this “vast program” will lead to a small revolution in the city and in the habits of the people of Nice. The challenge is significant, its realization will not be smooth sailing, but as they say in such cases, “when it’s time to go, we have to go.”
This is the option chosen by Christian Estrosi.
