Flights to domestic destinations that can be reached by train in two and half hours are to be banned under measures approved by French MPs.
The ban, part of a bill to cut French greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent between 1990 and 2030, has been widely criticised.
Airline industry backers said the measure — the first of its kind in Europe — was a further blow to a sector in crisis because of the pandemic; environmentalists said that President Macron should have gone further in the fight against global warming.
The idea was proposed by the Citizens’ Climate Convention, a group of 150 people drawn out of a hat who Macron has asked to find ways to help France meet its environmental aims.
The convention proposed banning domestic flights to places that could be reached by train in less than four and a half hours. After an outcry this was cut to two and a half hours by the government, meaning that only one in ten domestic flights, mainly between Paris and cities such as Nantes, Lyons, Bordeaux and Rennes, would be affected.
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A study showed that the ban would reduce CO2 emissions on domestic flights by 6.6 per cent and on all flights from France by 0.5 per cent.
The transport sector in France emits 136 million tonnes of CO2 a year, of which 94 per cent is from road use.
Opposition MPs, particularly those representing constituencies in southwest France, which is home to Airbus, criticised the ban. Joël Aviragnet, the MP for Toulouse, where Airbus is based, said it would have a “disproportionate human cost”.
Critics noted that the measure had been put to a vote days after Macron agreed to a ¤4 billion recapitalisation of Air France-KLM, the Franco-Dutch carrier.
The Austrian authorities linked an Austrian Airlines bailout last year to the ending of flights between Vienna and Salzburg but stopped short of the blanket ban being suggested in France.
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The Higher Climate Council, a body set up by Macron to track the country’s fight against global warming, said the two and a half hour cut-off, was “much too low”. It added that airlines would try to get around the ban because connecting flights to destinations affected by the measure “could be maintained when it is a question of transporting passengers flying on [to other destinations].
“Because they only apply to a small proportion of greenhouse gas emitting practices, the ambition of these measures could be greatly increased by widening their perimeter,” it said.
Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the industry minister, brushed aside the criticism and said the government had found a middle way between conflicting demands. “We know that aviation is a contributor of carbon dioxide and that because of climate change we must reduce emissions,” she said. “Equally, we must support our companies and not let them fall by the wayside.”
Explaining the retreat from the previous target, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the transport minister, said a ban on flights to destinations that could be reached by train in four hours would have left swathes of the country with only a limited connection with Paris: “We chose two and a half hours because four hours would have dried up isolated territories like the Massif Central. It would be unfair,” he said.
The legislation, which includes restrictions on car use in cities and on advertisements for polluting products, as well as a ban on the renting out of badly insulated properties, needs to be approved by the Senate before it becomes law.
