This popular French island could be ‘wiped off the map’ due to climate change

This French island is seriously threatened by global warming in Europe.

Mega forest fires, lake droughts, heatwaves in cities… the consequences of climate change have accelerated in recent years in France, with events becoming more frequent and intense. According to a new alarming report from the NGO Réseau Action Climat published on September 19, 2024, France is the European country most at risk of coastal flooding due to rising water levels and erosion caused by climate change. Concrete consequences could be particularly observable on this island of the very popular metropolis.

With its 5,800 kilometres of coastline, metropolitan France is at risk. In a worst-case scenario, coastal areas in the seaside regions of Normandy, Brittany, Pays de la Loire, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Corsica and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur risk being submerged due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion. An island renowned for its unspoilt wilderness and fine sandy beaches, nicknamed the “luminous island”, risks being literally wiped off the map: the island of Oléron, in Charente-Maritime.

It is a very dark scenario that is gradually taking shape on this island, which is particularly subject to submersion and the strongest erosion in Europe: each year on Oléron, the sea is eating away at the sand a little more, its southern coast has already been receding by 10 to 20 metres per year since the 1960s. By the end of the century, the sea level could rise by up to 75 centimetres and engulf its districts.

The NGO’s report estimates the number of people living in these risk areas, such as the inhabitants of the island of Oléron, the island of Ré, Saint-Malo, the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel and even the banks of Bordeaux and Bayonne, increasing from 900,000 people currently to 1.7 million by the end of the century. At the same time, the average warming observed in France, which is currently +1.9°C, could reach +4°C in 2100, with the report highlighting that temperatures could reach 50°C.

But it is still possible to limit the effects of climate change on the French landscape, provided that we take serious care of it… According to Benjamin Crettenand, co-author of the report, “the main way to combat the impact is to limit our greenhouse gas emissions on a collective scale.”