Environment
A City That Takes Climate Change Seriously: Paris
The French capital, under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, could be a model for how cities can mitigate and plan for climate change. But change has not come easily.
The schoolyard of Paris’s Avenue Daumesnil École Maternelle doesn’t look like the site of a revolution: It’s the modest play space of a state-run kindergarten.
But look closer. The yard has just been subtly remodeled to make it better able to tolerate a hotter, wetter world. Over the summer break, its conventional impermeable concrete surfaces were ripped up and replaced with a porous sub-layer that can act as a sponge for stormwater. Over this base went a layer of fully permeable pavement that allows water to drain through, minimizing the risk of flooding.