Jean Jouzel: Climate action is falling short despite the risks

Jouzel told Respekt that hopes for a greener society after the Covid-19 pandemic have not been borne out. Emissions have not stabilised, he said, and Europe’s once-ambitious Green Deal has lost momentum. While some action has been taken since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, he said, progress remains too slow for the scale of the problem. Adaptation matters, but it cannot replace mitigation.

Without a strong strategy and major action by around 2040, achieving carbon neutrality by the end of the century will be difficult, Jouzel said. Young people will live on a warming planet, and the consequences of choices made in the next 15 years will emerge much later. Sea-level rise cannot be stopped, he warned, and inaction carries enormous risks.

Jouzel said climate measures should be presented alongside their benefits for health and the economy. He pointed to electric vehicles and building insulation as ways to support economic growth while reducing reliance on fossil fuels. China is moving in the right direction on electric cars, he said, while Europe is not. Heat waves also show how climate change affects daily life: Jouzel cited 8,000 heat-related deaths in France and 17,000 in Germany during the summer.

Disinformation spread through social media makes it harder to persuade people, he said, but winning over a majority is enough. In France, electric vehicles made up 40 percent of new sales in September, up from 28 percent at the start of the year. Jouzel attributed the shift to high petrol and diesel prices, rather than climate concerns, and warned that buyers could return to combustion-engine cars if prices fall.

For electricity, he backs a mix of nuclear power and renewables. Nuclear power generates around 70 percent of France’s electricity, he said, and the country should build new plants while expanding renewables to meet its 2050 carbon-neutrality goal. Nuclear construction is costly, while renewable energy prices are falling; however, renewables also require investment in grids to manage variable output.