PARIS – When France is reeling after a summer extreme temperature and Energy prices soarprompting increasingly urgent calls to curb the pollutants that contribute to global warming, one high-flying culprit is finding itself in the hairs: private jets.
In recent days, France’s transport minister has called for restrictions on such airplane flights because of their overwhelming contribution to climate change, while a prominent French lawmaker The Green Party said he would soon introduce a bill to ban them altogether.
The announcements have resonated in France, where there are weeks severe drought and wildfires have brought the reality to global warming, sparking a larger debate about consumer responsibility in tackling climate change.
“No need to resort to pedagogy or launch hominem ads attacks, there are some behaviors that are no longer acceptable,” said Clément Beaune, the transport minister. Le Parisien on Saturday, when he announced plans to regulate private jets.
Mr Beaune’s advisers said he was considering a number of options, including requiring companies to disclose trips made on private jets, or expanding the European Union. emissions trading program – limit the amount companies are allowed to emit – for jets. Mr. Beaune said he would consult with his bloc’s partners on the matter.
The aviation field has been considered one of the world’s leading carbon emitters. And private jets are estimated to pollute 5 to 14 times more than commercial planes per passenger and 50 times more than trains, base on the research published last year by Transport & Environment, an advocacy group for cleaner transport.
Research shows that France, with its capital to the north and the Mediterranean Riviera prized by the super-rich to the south, has the second-highest private jet emissions in Europe, after the UK. In 2019, one-tenth of the country’s total outbound flights were by private jet, according to the study.
In recent months, a number of social media accounts in France have begun tracking the flights taken by some French billionaires by jet, prompting a public outcry over the use of planes. .
On Twitter and Instagram, popular accounts have names like I Fly Bernard — as Bernard Arnault, the head of luxury conglomerate LVMH and one of the richest men in the world — has made public the trips of billionaires and released estimates of their carbon emissions. .
On Friday I fly Bernard wrote on Twitter that a private jet belonging to the company of French media magnate Vincent Bolloré made three flights on the same day during its journey between France and Greece, emitting 22 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the average emissions. of 10 years for an automobile. in France, based on data from Greenpeace.
“This simple little tool is incredibly powerful because you suddenly understand that something is wrong,” said Julien Bayou, member of the French National Assembly, the House of Representatives and leader of the Green Party, referring to the submissions. follow on social media.
Mr Bayou said he was planning to introduce a bill in October, when Parliament reconvenes after the summer break, to ban private jets. He added that a ban on other energy-intensive private transport such as yachts would also be considered. “It’s a question of justice and equality,” he said.
Last year, France passed a climate law that domestic flights were banned for journeys that could be made by train in less than two and a half hours – unless they were connecting to an international flight – but the ban waived the trips by private plane.
Mr Bayou said that his party has discussed banning private jets in the past but the proposal has only gained momentum in recent weeks as “perhaps this is the first time we’ve seen that change”. climate change is deeply unequal.”
One scorching summer This year has made the reality of the devastation of climate change all too clear for France, with Wildfires tore through the southeast and The most severe drought on record depleted water reserves in dozens of cities.
When authorities imposed restrictions on water availability in most of mainland France, conflict broke out, with many questioning what they saw as a privilege reserved for the wealthy.
Outdoor Jacuzzi was vandalized, and farmers have challenged the bans on irrigating their fields. In the south of France, climate activists filled golf course holes with cement to protest the exemption from water bans for trees. “For a bourgeois class.”
Emmanuel Combet, an economist at France’s publicly funded Energy and Environment Administration, said there has been a growing debate in France about the role of the richest in efforts. conserve.
One last year’s release which Mr. Combet co-wrote estimates that a household in the richest 10 percent of France emits more than twice as much carbon dioxide on average as a household in the poorest 10 percent. The disparity is even more pronounced when it comes to transport-related emissions, with the richest quintile emitting three times as much as the poorest quintile.
But he also points to the fact that some wealthy households emit less than poorer households through investments in cleaner energy, such as using electric heating instead of oil.
“Debates about the fairness of the environmental transition should not be limited to the divide between rich and poor,” said Mr. Combet.
President Emmanuel Macron has in the past been criticized for environmental measures that appear to benefit urban elites at the expense of working class in rural areas. In late 2018, after the government announced it would raise taxes on gasoline and diesel as part of a move to push drivers towards cleaner energy, protests broke out across France, leading to the so-called Yellow Vest Movement That shook the country.
While Mr Beaune’s proposals are being contested by some government officials, his call for a crackdown on private jets seems intended to signal that the conservation efforts Mr. for everything.
“Private jets have a symbolic value,” Olivier Véran, a government spokesman, told the radio station. France Inter on Tuesday. “The French must not get the impression that it is always the people who are asked to make the effort – that is, the working class and the middle class.”
