Topic: 2025 – Impact of Climate Change on Air Quality
Country: France
Delegate Name: Gloria Turner
Country: France
Delegate: Gloria Turner
School: Williamston High School
Committee: UNEP
Topic: Impact of Climate Change on Air Quality
Air is something we all breathe, and it is one of the core necessities humans need to survive. Over the past 100 years, the air quality has decreased significantly globally. As the climate has been rapidly changing, so has air quality. All the pollutants that contribute to climate change also negatively impact air quality. Climate change is also at a critical point where inaction can result in irreversible damage to the planet. Factors of climate change, such as higher temperatures, wildfires, droughts, altered precipitation rates, and extreme weather cases, contribute to the decline in air quality. These effects have ramifying implications for what that means for France as a country, as well as globally.
France has a moderately good air quality rate, but with room for improvement. On a global scale, France understands areas such as India, West Africa, and the Middle East that heavily struggle with air quality, and France wishes to support them. France’s top three pollutants include: heating, industry, and, most damaging of all, transport. Over the past decade or two, France has honed in on environmental reform to improve climate change and air quality. Since 2012, France has been a part of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), which acts both domestically and globally. This demonstrates a long-lasting commitment to reducing the effects of climate change and improving air quality. France has launched numerous CCAC procedures, such as the CCAC’s Efficient Cooling Initiative, working together with other countries to tackle the coolant sector of pollutants (hydrofluorocarbons/HFCs from predominantly air conditioners). Along with that, France produced the Biarritz Pledge landmark agreement in 2019, which aimed to reduce the aforementioned HFCs. In 2019, France passed the Law on Energy and Climate, as well as updating their National Low Carbon Strategy as recently as 2020. In 2020, France passed the “France Release” which targeted the economic ramifications of COVID-19, along with a focus on decarbonizing industries, and advocating for green technology, such as hydrogen, recycling measures, and biofuel. Paris, specifically, is a part of the CCAC’s BreatheLife Campaign, which centers on combating climate change and the health effects of pollution, which contributes to 7 million premature deaths.
The mayor of Paris plans to reform the city by reducing the number of cars in the capital by half, banning diesel vehicles, and making the city more walkable. To help achieve this, France as a whole also charges companies and individuals who own vehicles a fee to promote more environmentally-friendly transport. Along with the fee, there is an incentive for purchasing zero-emission vehicles to replace ones that harm the environment. Not only that, but France has launched low-emission zones in areas that commonly exceed pollution limits. As a global leader, France has taken up their responsibility and has also donated an immense amount to the Green Climate Fund that helps underdeveloped countries reduce climate change, as well as reducing domestic emissions too. Currently, France’s laws perfectly coincide with the European Union air quality legislation and follow the EU’s regulatory procedures for pollution emissions as well. France has constantly reformed, updated, and implemented new procedures and plans to reduce their emissions and is legally bound to be carbon neutral by 2050 with their signing of the Paris Agreement. France would be interested in working with: US, UK, Germany, NATO, EU, and G7.
Sources:
https://www.ccacoalition.org/partners/france
https://www.iqair.com/us/france
https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2024
https://www.unep.org/resources/report/regulating-air-quality-first-global-assessment-air-pollution-legislation
