Heat and pollution: Jean-Michel Aulas accuses environmentalists of "concreting" Lyon

Surrounded by Nicolas Sarkozy, Pierre Oliver, LR mayor of the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon and Fabrice Pannekoucke, LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Jean-Michel Aulas announced a few weeks ago regarding the 2026 municipal elections that he would say before the end of June " how he will go there and with whom ".

As of July 3, the former OL president has still not announced who and how he will be joining, but he continues to reflect, propose, and attack environmentalists on his social media. In the midst of a heatwave and ozone pollution, Jean-Michel Aulas posted a message questioning the actions of " the environmental majority ." " Rather than planting, they are concreting. Rather than insulating old buildings, they are investing in metal structures that exacerbate heat islands. The result: more heat, more pollution, fewer solutions, " he wrote.

As a reminder, the Lyon Metropolitan Area, led by environmentalist Bruno Bernard, planted 80,000 trees and shrubs this winter, 24,000 more than last winter. By comparison, 3,000 trees and shrubs were planted during the winter of 2019-2020. Jean-Michel Aulas also points out that "Lyon currently has only 8 m² of green space per inhabitant, compared to 30 m² in Paris... and 130 m² in Marseille."

Figures that Lyon Capitale was unable to cross-reference. According to an INSEE study dated April 2025, Marseille residents each have access to only 5m² of green space in the city center. Lyon, however, lags well behind Paris in terms of park and garden coverage and the proportion of the population with access to them within 300 meters. Less than 50% of Lyon residents have access to a green space within 300 meters, compared to 60% in Paris.

On the other hand, in the 2023 ranking of green cities in France, produced by Les entreprises du paysage and Hortis, the urban nature managers, Lyon ranks 4th, six places ahead of Paris. The ranking notably notes the creation of 27 urban orchards since 2021. According to the ranking, Lyon offers "52 m2 of green spaces per inhabitant, compared to 50 m2 on average" .

"The people of Lyon don't expect posturing. They want an ecology of results, more rigorous, more coherent," JMA nevertheless considers. And to conclude: "I will have the opportunity to come back to this, including by relying on solutions put forward by Team for the Planet: an approach that says little, but which acts, brings together... and obtains results." On June 2, Jean-Michel Aulas already noted that 18 of the 22 measuring stations in the Lyon metropolitan area exceeded the WHO thresholds. "It's a fact," says someone close to him, while the said thresholds will be reinforced again in 2027, as Atmo pointed out a few weeks ago .

"All the evidence shows that positive ecological principles applied to poor performance (...) lead to increased pollution," wrote JMA. However, NOx levels have fallen from 80 ug/ ^m3 in 2010 to 30 today. PM10 fine particles have fallen from 40 ug/ ^m3 to around 20 today, according to Atmo. Only ozone, which is mainly linked to summer factors, is increasing, partly due to global warming.