Rachida Dati, the right-wing candidate for Mayor of Paris, presented her ecology program on Tuesday, aiming to ‘cool’ and ‘calm’ the capital through ‘systematic greening’ and making building renovation the ‘project of the century’.
Dati Criticizes Current Administration’s ‘Communication Ecology’
Dati criticized the outgoing majority’s ‘communication ecology’ under Anne Hidalgo, stating her desire to place trees ‘at the center’ of a ‘systematic greening policy’. She pledged not to cut down ‘any of the 200,000 trees in Paris and 300,000 in the woods, except for justified exceptions’.
She lamented that ‘many trees have died and been cut down due to the permanent construction site policy’ of the current municipal team, as reported in an interview with Le Parisien.
Key Proposals for a Greener Paris
If elected in March, Rachida Dati plans to create ‘500 new green strips’, prioritizing ‘in-ground planting rather than display installations’. Currently, the capital has 4,530 green spaces on public roads, mainly on removed parking spaces, which is double the number since 2020, according to the city hall.
The Minister of Culture and Mayor of the 7th arrondissement hopes to ‘gain 3 degrees in the streets’ by ‘de-bitumenizing’ Paris to make it a ‘sponge city’, similar to the ‘rain plan’ adopted this summer by the Paris Council.
The Avenue de la Grande Armée (west) will be ‘largely greened and de-bitumenized’ with filtering pavers to allow water to pass through, according to the press kit. Place de la République (east), currently ‘entirely asphalted’, ‘will have to be redeveloped’ and greened in places, added Rachida Dati, who sees the redesign of this site as ‘the symbol of the failure of the outgoing majority’.
Renovation of Buildings: The ‘Project of the Century’
Dati committed to making thermal renovation of buildings the ‘Parisian project of the century’, with a five-year property tax exemption for homes that move out of G or F energy efficiency labels. This addresses a demand regularly advocated by property associations and some real estate professionals.
The candidate also promised to renovate 10,000 social housing units per year – double the city’s current objective – by connecting a quarter of the residences to urban cold and heat networks.
Reducing Noise Pollution and Promoting Eco-Friendly Transport
She intends to reduce ‘half of the noise pollution’ by 2032, with a ‘point-based permit’ for terraces, to achieve ‘a balance between festive Paris and the right to sleep’. To ‘calm traffic’, sound-absorbing coatings will be applied to the busiest arteries, including the périphérique (ring road).
A study on increasing the speed limit to 50 km/h on this urban highway will also be launched to assess its effects on pollution.
Rachida Dati wants to encourage low-carbon modes of transport, with aid for the purchase of electric vehicles, and to preserve the place of cycling by ‘strengthening and securing cycle paths on under-equipped axes, such as the north-south axis’.
