[en] Members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are unanimous: 'Warming of the climate system is unequivocal'. Climate change is already underway and its effects are beginning to be felt: 'many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes'. The message from scientists concerning the significance of these changes is unambiguous, although there is still some uncertainty surrounding their scope. Profound changes are now inevitable, whatever means are employed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, because of the inertia inherent in climate systems. These changes will affect a number of sectors: agriculture, forestry, tourism, fisheries, spatial planning, construction and infrastructure, population protection, etc. In this respect, climate change is no longer a purely scientific issue focusing on the distant future, but has become a pressing, contemporary, global, political challenge. Fighting climate change is a national priority and the measures required to limit its scope by reducing greenhouse gas emissions (i.e. climate change mitigation) are the focus of the French Climate Plan adopted in 2004 and regularly updated. Adapting French territory to climate change has also become a major issue requiring national mobilisation. Adaptation should be viewed as an indispensable addition to the mitigation activities already being undertaken. Program law 2009-967 of 3 August 2009, relating to the implementation of the Grenelle Environment Forum, makes provision in Article 42 for 'the preparation of a National Adaptation Plan for a variety of areas of activity by 2011'. The Plan will cover a five-year period. A mid-term review will be carried out in 2013, and this will allow checks to be made for alignment between the National Plan and regional guidelines and actions defined in Regional Climate, Air and Energy Programs and Regional Climate-Energy Programs under the provisions of Law 2010-788 of 12 July 2010 relating to the national environmental commitment. France is one of the first EU member states to produce a climate change adaptation plan. Germany is due to publish its plan in the summer of 2011 and the United Kingdom will produce its five-year plan in 2012. The European Union published a White Paper on adaptation in 2009 and will draw up a European strategy in 2013. This document is a compilation of several reports: the French National Climate Change Impact Adaptation Plan itself in French and English with its sectoral action sheets, a 2 years and mid-term assessment, a report from the working group with a synthesis for overseas territories, and a final evaluation of the plan.

[en] The assessment of the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (NAP), produced by the General Advisory Council on the Environment and Sustainable Development, has highlighted the plan's flagship achievements and identified areas in need of improvement and the most significant shortcomings. Since much of this first plan was exploratory and therefore concentrated primarily on developing knowledge and experience in newly emerging subjects, it helped to provide a clearer picture of the issues involved in climate change adaptation in many different fields. It also pinpointed certain aspects that France will need to focus its efforts on, both in terms of the themes that are given attention and in terms of the work of local and regional authorities and public bodies. One of the areas that will need to be worked on is to bring the way economic sectors are structured into line with future climate-related issues. Some of the cross-sector work carried out under the framework of the NAP, such as the opinion on risk acceptability and governance produced by the Prevention and Precaution Committee, or the five volumes of 'The French Climate in the 21. Century', have themselves provided material for discussions about France's adaptation process and contributed to highlighting the newly emerging area of climate services. The opinion issued by the Advisory Council on Economic, Social and Environmental Affairs in 2014 offers further general insights, both from the point of view of the various sectors concerned and in terms of translating the adaptation process into practice at local and regional levels. One of the aspects it flags up is the specific issues affecting the French Overseas Territories. The action taken by France can also be viewed in the European context and the work of the European Environment Agency, underlining the positive effects of sharing experience and methods between Member States and the benefits of cross-border cooperation between neighbouring EU countries. The international cooperation aspect that is so necessary in the field of adaptation has been reflected in Article 7 of the Paris Agreement, produced in the closing stages of the 21. Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Agreement on Climate Change. In addition to the cross-cutting evaluations, several of the actions led to examining the plan or making recommendations for adaptation actions from the point of view of specific subjects. For example, the Scientific Advisory Council on Natural Heritage and Biodiversity stressed that the plan did not pay sufficient attention to biodiversity and the complex interactions between biodiversity and climate. The General Advisory Council on Food, Agriculture and Rural Areas highlighted the need to address climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation together, within a framework of local-level projects and a broad vision of the agriculture, forestry and other land uses sector. Meanwhile, the Public Health Council pointed to the fact that the health issues surrounding adaptation of the population tie in closely with the subject of individual and collective behaviour. By giving a significant amount of feedback on public policy, identifying a wide range of issues and making well-supported recommendations, this report provides the public bodies with a springboard for strengthening France's adaptation process. All the stakeholders concerned will be able to take it on board in detail with the help of the in-depth analyses