California and France have signed a new partnership aimed at tackling climate change together, with wildfire prevention, clean energy, and biodiversity protection topping the list of shared priorities. The agreement, announced this week, builds on roughly a decade of cooperation between the state and the European nation.
According to a post from CalEPA
on X, “CA & France are teaming up to fight climate change, signing a partnership to collaborate on clean energy, wildfire prevention, biodiversity protection & so much more.” The agency added that the effort reflects a belief that “global collective climate action means we can build a healthier, more sustainable future for all.” Per the same post, California and France will also collaborate on climate mitigation strategies, extreme-heat and wildfire resilience, and access to clean water.
The Governor of California's office describes the partnership as a way to connect government experts, researchers, and businesses with the goal of protecting communities, strengthening economic ties, and advancing cleaner technologies. The announcement frames the deal as an extension of work the two governments have already been doing together, rather than a stand-alone initiative.
A Long History of State-Level Climate Diplomacy
California has leaned on international partnerships like this one for years as a way to extend its climate policies beyond its own borders. The state's intergovernmental relations program, run through CalEPA, shares its experience on climate and other environmental programs through bilateral agreements with national and subnational governments, as well as through multilateral partnerships.
That approach dates back at least to 2015, when California and the German state of Baden-Württemberg jointly launched the Under2 Coalition as a climate protection initiative, according to the Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.. The coalition aims to limit the rise in average global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius.
Why Wildfire Cooperation Matters on Both Sides of the Atlantic
The partnership’s wildfire focus has practical relevance on both sides of the Atlantic. An August report from the Los Angeles Times described fire risks around Bordeaux, where suburban development has expanded into pine forests.
The Times reported that a fire burned 162 square miles of dense pine forest along France’s Atlantic coast, prompting more than 200,000 evacuations and destroying 183 homes in Le Porge. The scale of the destruction underscores the challenges facing communities in fire-prone areas.
France’s existing fire-safety measures include lookout towers, water stations and cleared corridors among the pines, funded by a tax on pine-grove owners, but the Times reported that the system was not built for the climate-driven megafires now testing it. Biganos Mayor Bruno Lafon described homes built among the trees as “California-style” development. The full scope of joint wildfire programs under the new partnership has not yet been detailed.
California’s Existing Wildfire Prevention Funding
The partnership is separate from California’s existing wildfire-prevention efforts. A 2021-22 report by CAL FIRE and the Office of the State Fire Marshal listed estimated Wildfire Prevention Grants costs of $118.3 million: $78.3 million from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and $40 million from the General Fund. The program funds hazardous-fuel reduction, prevention planning and education in and near fire-threatened communities.
What Comes Next
Beyond the broad categories named by CalEPA and the governor's office — clean energy, wildfire prevention, biodiversity protection, climate mitigation, extreme-heat resilience, and clean-water access — specifics such as funding, timelines, and individual projects have not been released. It is also not yet clear what agencies beyond CalEPA will be directly involved in carrying out the partnership's goals.
For now, the announcement signals an intent to keep California's international climate diplomacy running, pairing the state's experience battling its own wildfires with a French government confronting a fire landscape that, by multiple accounts, now looks increasingly familiar.
