Local elections on March 15 will usher in a new era in Paris, after 12 years under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has overseen dramatic changes in the city.

Hidalgo was elected in 2014 and saw her mandate renewed in 2020, helming a left-wing coalition that included the Socialist Party and the Greens. She decided not to seek a third term this year. But the environmental policies that she championed have left a visible mark on the French capital and are likely to endure regardless of who succeeds her.

Local elections on March 15 will usher in a new era in Paris, after 12 years under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, who has overseen dramatic changes in the city.

Hidalgo was elected in 2014 and saw her mandate renewed in 2020, helming a left-wing coalition that included the Socialist Party and the Greens. She decided not to seek a third term this year. But the environmental policies that she championed have left a visible mark on the French capital and are likely to endure regardless of who succeeds her.

The green transition underway in Paris, Europe’s most densely populated region, matters well beyond its boundaries. Urban areas account for almost half of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, and experts have pointed to Paris’s policies as an example for other capitals around the world. It has been “at the forefront” of Western cities’ efforts to confront rising temperatures, said Melissa Checker, a professor of urban studies at the City University of New York.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo greets a protester during a climate march in Paris on March 12, 2022.Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images

Under Hidalgo’s watch, Paris expanded bike lanes to cover over 1,000 miles. Paired with a growing public bike-sharing fleet, this contributed to a 240 percent rise in cycling between 2018 and 2023.

The administration also closed a central area of the city to most car traffic, and hundreds more streets have been or are being pedestrianized. Joggers, cyclists, and bar terraces have taken over the banks of the Seine, which were major roads until about a decade ago. Stretches of the river have been cleaned up for public swimming, and some 100,000 people took a dip last summer.

To tackle extreme heat, the city government has developed green areas across Paris. Checker pointed to the creation of pop-up beaches along the Seine and shady areas as particularly innovative. According to Christophe Najdovski, a city councilor in charge of revegetation, some 150,000 trees have been planted and 370 streets greened since 2020, with several so-called urban forests now growing in the capital—one........

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