An airplane within the skies over France. The federal government there desires to chop short-haul flights within the nation to cut back emissions.
Alain Pitton | Nurphoto | Getty Photos
A French ban on home short-haul flights when various practice journeys exist got here into power this week, with one lawmaker hailing it as “an important step” within the nation’s efforts to chop greenhouse gasoline emissions.
The legislation, which was revealed through decree, basically prohibits public inside flights between French locations when a practice journey of underneath 2 hours and half-hour is accessible.
France is house to an intensive high-speed rail community. In response to a CNBC translation, the flight substitution applies solely when practice journey “offers a passable various service.”
It means public passenger flights between Paris-Orly and cities like Bordeaux, Nantes and Lyon, are affected by the legislation. Connecting flights usually are not impacted.
In an announcement translated by CNBC, Clément Beaune, transport minister, described the transfer as “an important step and a powerful image within the coverage of decreasing greenhouse gasoline emissions.”
Beaune additionally stated the ban was a “international first that’s totally in keeping with the Authorities’s coverage of encouraging the usage of modes of transportation that emit fewer greenhouse gases.”
Learn extra about electrical automobiles from CNBC Professional
The World Wildlife Fund describes the environmental footprint of aviation as “one of many fastest-growing sources of the greenhouse gasoline emissions driving international local weather change.”
The WWF additionally says air journey is “at present probably the most carbon intensive exercise a person could make.”
The information out of France comes as the broader debate about personal jet use wages on. In March 2023, evaluation revealed by Greenpeace confirmed the variety of personal jet flights in Europe final 12 months jumped by 64% to a report excessive of 572,806.
The usage of personal jets by high-profile, rich individuals generates a considerable amount of dialogue.
Throughout a BBC interview earlier this 12 months, Microsoft co-founder Invoice Gates was requested for his view on the cost {that a} local weather change campaigner’s use of a non-public jet was hypocritical.
“Effectively, I purchase the gold normal of, funding (CO2 removing agency) Climeworks to do direct air seize that far exceeds my household’s carbon footprint,” Gates, who was being interviewed in Kenya, replied.
“And I spend billions of {dollars} on … local weather innovation. So, , ought to I keep at house and never come to Kenya and study farming and malaria?”
The billionaire added that he was “comfy with the concept that, not solely am I not a part of the issue by paying for the offsets, but in addition via the billions that my Breakthrough Vitality Group is spending, that I am a part of the answer.”
Whereas the direct air seize sector has high-profile backers, it faces challenges. The Worldwide Vitality Company notes that capturing carbon dioxide from the air “is extra power intensive and due to this fact costly than capturing it from some extent supply.”
It provides that applied sciences like direct air seize “usually are not an alternative choice to slicing emissions or an excuse for delayed motion, however they are often an necessary a part of the suite of know-how choices used to attain local weather objectives.”
—CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this report