Tax or ban private jets in France: that's the question

Transport Minister Clément Beaune told the daily newspaper Le Parisien to reflect on regulation of private jets in the interests of financial fairness. " There are reasons for urgency and economic imperatives, but this cannot be an individual mode of comfort.The general mobilisation undertaken by the President of the Republic requires everyone to make an effort"., he justifies.

Government: regulate or severely restrict?

Clément Beaune has suggested a number of avenues. These include ask users to limit their travelparticularly on short-haul routes. Forcing users to publish their itineraries. Or, more radically, tax these journeys heavily. The Minister cited examples of comfort flights using private jets on routes such as Paris-Brussels or Paris-Geneva. In fact, there are plenty of trains and airliners available on these routes.

"This is becoming the symbol of a two-speed effort".added the minister in the daily. However, he added there was no question of banning the use of private jets in France - contrary to certain rumours. Clément Beaune stressed the economic importance of this aviation activity. He would prefer legislation at European level.

According to a European lobby Transport & Environment for clean transport, business aviation accounts for between 15% and 20% of air travel volume. But would generate a carbon footprint 5 to 15 times higher per passenger than on a commercial flight. According to the lobby, this represents around 154 million tonnes of CO2.

In May, Transport & Environment revealed in a ranking that the giants of the French global economy are still not doing enough to reduce their business travel emissions.

French companies and the limitation of business flights according to Transport & Environment

This ranking, launched as part of Transport & Environment's "Travel Smart" campaign, rates 230 American and European companies.. The lobby was based on 9 indicators relating to emission reduction targets, reports issued and air transport emissions.

The analysis includes 21 French companies. The study highlights the significant efforts that some companies still need to make to reduce their emissions linked to business travel. These include 16 French companies do not meet enough criteria and are lagging behind in terms of targets or reporting on business flights.

While Renault, L'Oréal and LVMH do have significant emission reduction targets, these companies have not committed to reducing their emissions from business flights. Some other big French names, such as Engie, Servier, Publicis and La Française des Jeux, score worst in the ranking. The study shows that they are not making any particular effort to reduce emissions linked to business travel, or to communicate their emissions linked to business flights.

Denise Auclair, corporate travel campaign manager at T&E, said: " The pandemic has shown that companies can be just as efficient by flying less and reducing their emissions at the same time. While some companies in France are showing that it is possible to reduce emissions from commercial air transport, others such as LVMH and Renault are lagging behind.. Reducing business travel makes economic sense for companies and it also protects the well-being of employees."

Global efforts

Of the 230 global companies in the ranking, 193 seem to be in no hurry at all to reduce emissions linked to business travel. Companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft are among the worst rated and need to speed up their transition to more intelligent travel, says T&E.

According to the study, one company with an A score has made an absolute reduction commitment for air travel, and some even have a reduction target of 50 % or more by 2025. These companies have also been disclosing their business travel and air travel emissions for more than a year. Only 8 companies out of 230 - or 3 % of the total - achieve this score.

Through its campaign, Transport & Environment is asking companies to..:

• Make a public commitment to a reduction in flights of at least 50 % compared with 2019 by 2025 at the latest ;
• From implement flight reductions and choose other modes of connectivity and transport;
• From communicate reports on the progress of their efforts to reduce emissions.

The Ministry of Transport is expected to clarify its proposals for regulation in France in the autumn. The Borne government could face a radical bill in parliament. Julien Bayou, co-chairman of the EELV ecologist group at the National Assembly, explained in the media filing "in autumn proposed legislation to ban not only private jets but also yachts...