Climatologist Jean Jouzel: 'None of France's presidential candidates truly grasp the reality of global warming'

Now approaching 80, Jean Jouzel, paleoclimatologist and former vice president of the scientific panel of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has never stopped warning about the consequences of global warming. He noted that the summer of 2026 matches what the scientific community predicted and called on France’s presidential candidates to rethink their approach to “reimagine how society is organized in terms of adaptation and mitigation.”

Were you surprised by what France and parts of the Northern Hemisphere experienced this summer?

This matches exactly what scientists have been saying since the 1990s, especially since the IPCC’s third report: heatwaves are intensifying, starting earlier, ending later and happening more frequently. Still, I was surprised when my native Brittany recorded 40°C in June. When I was young, a heatwave here meant it was 30°C.

And what our community is projecting beyond 2050 is actually quite alarming: 3°C warmer is twice as much as 1.5°C. We’re only just reaching that threshold, and the consequences are already here. That’s what I’ll be telling [Prime Minister] Sébastien Lecornu, whom I’m meeting soon: We need to trust the scientists.

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