Faced with climate change, France is considering restricting the use of private planes. Currently, private flights represent 10% of trips and many make short-haul flights.
French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered his Transport Minister Clément Beaune to start studying possible alternatives in terms of restricting the use of private jets.
The current policy of the State at the environmental level is to generate less pollution and consume less energy as a way of dealing with climate change.
The French president stated that it is unfair to demand efforts from the middle and lower class population to reduce energy consumption, since the class with more resources has the luxury of, for example, using private jets for short flights, with the consequent pollution that generate.
This September, the French government will discuss what has been dubbed its “sobriety plan” that aims to put into practice the energy savings required by the European Union to face the crisis arising from the war in Ukraine.
Private planes, one-tenth of total flights
According to the NGO Transport & Environment, quoted by the newspaper El País, a tenth of the flights in France correspond to private planes. In recent weeks this issue has been gaining volume in that country, and social media accounts that critically monitor the movements of millionaires and celebrities on exclusive planes are having a lot of echo.
In the tweet that accompanies the note, you can see part of a press conference that generated a lot of controversy in France.
Journalist asks PSG coach and Mbappé if they plan to travel by train to avoid the plane on short trips. The answer: LAUGHTER.
This is how a communication crisis begins. All bad.pic.twitter.com/vMdNOsicwC
– Juan M. Vizuete (@JuanVizuete) September 6, 2022
PSG coach and player Kylian Mbappé scoffed and was arrogant with the question of replacing the use of private planes with the offer of a high-speed train.
Although concrete measures are not yet known, several possibilities are being considered: from incentives to reduce these flights, restrictions or charges with a deterrent effect. Obliging companies to make public their travel by private plane, creating a device to frame their use and even preventing it if there is an alternative with commercial flights or trains is also being analyzed.
Opposing sectors
Currently, there is already a rule in France that prevents airlines from operating internal lines in France if there is an alternative train with a duration of less than two and a half hours, unless they establish interconnected flights.
Another possibility has also begun to be studied, that of integrating private aviation into the quota system of the future tax on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions that is being projected in the EU.
But there are more extreme politicians, such as the national secretary for Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV), Julien Bayou, who has already made it known that his position is to directly ban this type of flight in a system that has many alternatives. But this idea collides with the industry in the sector, which has already anticipated that it would jeopardize a large number of jobs.
According to the AeroNaves website, there are many adverse reactions from the potentially affected sector. There it is indicated that advancing this idea is to do so against the economic and social development of the countries. This could affect the development of the sector and the efforts of manufacturers and operators trying to advance in the generation of more efficient aircraft.