Up to 50 people have signed up to relocate due to climate change on the archipelago of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon off the Canadian coast.
As The Guardian reports, the move when complete will give Miquelon “the unenviable title of the first French village to relocate because of the climate emergency”.
The newspaper reports that the French government is investing public finances through the Barnier fund, used to financially support French citizens whose houses are threatened by the climate crisis by repurchasing their homes.
The new site for the village is across a bridge where a storm shelter will be constructed, and water and electricity supplies are already being extended.
The relocation is voluntary, and as long as most of the villagers are on the old site, the town hall, school and other public buildings will remain there.
The 400 buildings in the village are just two metres above sea level.
In 2014, French head of state François Hollande became the first to visit, and warned that Miquelon could soon disappear because of the rise in sea level.
Levels are expected to be one metre higher by the end of the century. A coastal risk prevention plan over the last decade has banned all new construction there.
The local government on Miquelon began to plan the move seriously after the village was narrowly missed by Hurricane Fiona in September 2022, the most expensive climate-related storm to hit Canada in recent years.
Read more in The Guardian here
