Cyclone Chido has wreaked havoc in the French overseas department of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. The cyclone swept across the archipelago bringing gusts of up to 240 kilometres per hour. A large proportion of the island’s population live in huts with corrugated iron roofs, a factor which it is feared will push up the death toll. Things cannot go on like this, commentators agree.
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Make reconstruction sustainable
A forward-looking approach must be taken when rebuilding infrastructure and housing, political scientist Yohann Aucante demands in Le Monde:
“As has been the case with so many other islands already hit by the devastating effects of climate change, the same tin shacks will slowly be rebuilt, with the same materials and in the same precarious conditions, and they too will be swept away like straws in storms of increasingly fearsome intensity. … Yet it is possible to rebuild better, faster and more sustainably without excesses in terms of costs and concrete. The reconstruction of Mayotte can and must be a pilot project for the future of these islands which are so severely affected by climate change.”
Set new priorities in climate policy
Energy expert Philippe Charlez calls for a rethink in Le Figaro:
“The distant prospect of a global reduction in CO2 emissions will inevitably lead us – far from the chimera of 2050 – to a world that is three degrees warmer. This fact fundamentally changes the order of priorities with regard to the now obsolete Paris climate agreement. The priority is no longer to set up wind turbines and solar panels or to replace combustion cars with electric cars, but to restore soils to their natural state and to build dikes and adequate housing. Without this rethink and a complete U-turn in our climate policy, the nightmare of Mayotte could be repeated here in continental France.”
The burden doubles for the poor
Mayotte exemplifies the plight of poverty, says Le Soir:
“Any child would understand that the poorest, the most vulnerable, the undocumented and the refugees will suffer doubly in the years to come: as the main victims of the accidents and misfortunes of life and as the main victims of the effects of global warming and the destruction it causes when it strikes at unpredictable times and places, but always with unprecedented violence. … They have no way to protect themselves ex ante or leave endangered places, and no way ex post to go elsewhere, except as unwanted refugees.”