The government will provide a “ecocontribution revised upwards” in 2024 for private commercial aviation, announced Thursday, April 6, 2023 the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune before the National Assembly, during a debate on the pollution caused by private jets.
“The subject is not anecdotal”, admitted the minister in the hemicycle, while expressing his hostility to the ban on private jet flights, carried by environmentalists as part of their day reserved for the Palais-Bourbon.
“We will go further”
In the finance law for 2023, a “70% increase in fuel tax for private aviation” was put in place, he recalled, agreeing that certain practices were “shocking, often offbeat, sometimes unacceptable”.
“And I am telling you, we will go further if you agree in the budget for 2024 by proposing that private commercial aviation (…) may be subject to an additional contribution, an increased eco-contribution, which will specifically allow these behaviors to be taken into account”, continued the Minister.
“The general ban gives a good conscience but does not advance the ecological transition in practice”, estimated Clément Beaune, emphasizing in particular the “legal obstacles” and the difficulty of defining and monitoring exemptions.
The environmental proposal rejected, due to lack of time
Environmentalists proposed banning “non-scheduled passenger air transport services not operated commercially”, as well as non-scheduled public air transport services “whose number of passengers is less than 60”.
It is “bring the rich back to earth” by making them contribute to the ecological transition, pleaded the deputy Julien Bayou. “It is the measure that penalizes the fewest people but produces the maximum effects for the climate and the atmosphere”, he estimated.
The examination of the text, which was moving towards a rejection, could not be completed for lack of time, a “parliamentary niche” not being able to extend beyond midnight.