The Roissy extension is over.

The government asked the manager of the Paris airports, Groupe ADP, in which the State is the majority shareholder, "to abandon its project and present it with a new one, more consistent with its objectives of combating climate change and environmental protection, "Minister Barbara Pompili told" World ".

A foil for environmental defenders, it is now officially considered "obsolete": the extension of Roissy international airport via the construction of a fourth terminal has been abandoned, the government announced on Thursday.

The validity of this project was already in doubt at a time of the fight against global warming and when the prospects for relentless growth in passenger traffic were shattered under the effect of the pandemic.

The Minister of Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, formalized his end in an interview with

Le Monde

.

The Roissy extension no longer meets "the objectives of combating climate change"

The government asked the manager of the Paris airports, Groupe ADP, in which the State is the majority shareholder, "to abandon its project and present it with a new one, more consistent with its objectives of combating climate change and environmental protection, "Barbara Pompili told The Daily.

"Groupe ADP takes note of this request, which is one of the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis," said the manager.

The company "engages in a time of reflection on the challenges of the future of the airport", according to its CEO Augustin de Romanet, quoted in a press release.

This project involved the construction by 2037 of a fourth terminal at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport in order to increase the reception capacity from 40 million passengers per year to 120 million.

"It is an obsolete project, which no longer corresponded to the environmental policy of the government and to the requirements of a rapidly changing sector, turned towards the green plane of tomorrow," said Barbara Pompili.

A project worth several billion euros 

This colossal project at an estimated cost of between 7 and 9 billion euros, rejected by a number of environmental defense associations and local elected officials, will therefore not be launched.

According to

Le Monde

, "the government is now asking Groupe ADP to propose a completely different project, which will not focus on increasing the capacity of Roissy", which before the crisis was the second airport in Europe behind London-Heathrow.

"We will always need planes, but it is a question of being in a more reasoned use of the air, and to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of the sector", according to Barbara Pompili.

This announcement comes the day after the presentation by the government of its “climate and resilience” bill resulting from the proposals of the Citizen's Climate Convention, a text strongly criticized for its “lack of muscle” by part of the left and NGOs