NGOs move up a gear on reducing air traffic

Air France planes parked on the tarmac at Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy (Val d'Oise) on September 24, 2014 -

• Demonstrations and actions of civil disobedience will target nineteen airports in France this Saturday.

  They were launched by the NGOs Alternatiba and ANV-COP 21 and are supported by a collective of scientists, activists and political figures.

• At the heart of the demands is "the necessary reduction in air traffic", "the only way to reduce its carbon footprint", they say, denouncing the myth of the green plane.

• This is not the direction taken.

  "We must not travel less, but ensure that aviation is less emissive, less polluting", said again, a few days ago, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, Minister for Transport.

#AvionsATerre as a rallying slogan.

Alternatiba and Action Non-Violente COP21 (ANV-COP21) want to make this Saturday a day of marches on airports for a reduction in air traffic.

The two associations of citizen mobilizations on climate issues called for this date of October 3 to be checked in the calendar from July 10, before beating the reminder on September 16, via a forum published in

and co-signed by a collective of scientists , civil society actors and environmental activists.

Nineteen mobilizations this Saturday

In recent months, airports have found themselves repeatedly in the crosshairs of environmental associations.

The Extinction Rebellion activists, for example, entered the runways at Orly airport on June 26, disrupting its reopening.

“But this is the first time that we are calling for coordinated marches everywhere in France,” says Pauline Boyer, of ANV-COP21.

Nineteen mobilizations are thus planned this Saturday.

In most cases, these demonstrations will take the form of marches or bike rulings on airports coupled with civil disobedience actions.

"Important events are being prepared in Paris, Bayonne, Nantes, Poitiers and even Nice," says Pauline Boyer.

The subject is in any case topical.

It started at the end of 2018 with the “Flygskam” movement that started from Sweden and which consists in boycotting the plane to prefer gentler modes of travel, such as the train, in the face of the climate emergency.

The question of ecological compensation

The Covid-19 crisis has added another layer.

"Many have realized that the aviation sector was very supported by public funds, that it was going to be even more so to enable it to recover from the crisis", observes Agathe Bounfour, responsible for "transport" at the Climate Action Network ( RAC) which brings together associations involved in the fight against climate change.

Already in the spring, the NGOs had pointed out the absence of serious environmental compensation requested from the aviation sector, in exchange for this aid, although it is not without impact on greenhouse gas emissions *.

Four months later, this same question is at the heart of the marches organized this Saturday.

While the International Air Transport Association (Iata) does not foresee world air traffic at pre-crisis level before 2024, “the whole issue is precisely whether this is the goal that we should to fix, questions economist Maxime Combes, member of Attac [Association for the taxation of financial transactions and for citizen action].

Before the crisis, air traffic was growing rapidly every year, so its carbon footprint is also increasing.

"" The evolution of the number of annual passengers in France has followed an average increase of 2.7% per year for twenty years, indicates the consulting firm in ecological transition BL Evolution.

A trend that had accelerated even more in recent years since between 2016 and 2018, there were 18 million additional air passengers in France, i.e. a growth of more than 10% in 2 years *.

"

"Using the crisis to rethink the aviation sector"

Another option then, for Maximes Combes, “would be to use this unique opportunity represented by the current crisis in the aviation sector to organize its gradual conversion - no one says it must be done overnight - and start with better environmental bases.

"

In short: think about reducing air traffic in France.

One of the demands made this Saturday is thus "the abolition of all short-haul airlines, at least those which are made in less than five hours by train".

The abandonment of all airport extension projects in France follows immediately after.

Agathe Bounfour cites those in Nice, Marseille but also the creation of terminal 4 at Roissy, which would allow the airport to reach 120 million passengers by 2035, i.e. a 50% increase in the current capacity of the 'terminal.

The green plane, a myth?

This is not the direction taken in France.

Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, Minister Delegate in charge of Transport, reiterated it on September 21: "we must not travel less, but ensure that aviation is less emissive, less polluting".

The bet then is that of the "green plane", that technological progress and future efficiency gains would make it possible to emit less greenhouse gases.

"In 2035 we must have succeeded in having an aircraft that can run on hydrogen", asked in particular Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy in the French aeronautical sector.

The green plane?

"A myth", qualifies the collective which calls to demonstrate this Saturday.

Already last May, in a forum at

, a group of 700 students from the aeronautics sector estimated that "technical progress will not be enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes, essential against global warming. ".

The same sentiment expressed for The Shift Project, a think tank on ecological transition, in a report dated May 26.

A reduction in traffic that makes airlines fear the worst

Opposite, the French airlines reject with the same vigor the proposals aiming to reduce traffic.

Starting with the idea of ​​closing new domestic lines.

At the request of the government, Air France has already removed those for which an alternative by train of less than 2h30 exists [Orly-Lyon, Orly-Bordeaux, Orly-Nantes ***].

The Citizen's Climate Convention advocates broadening the spectrum until 4 a.m. and the organizers of this Saturday's marches even push until 5:30 a.m.

"The routes that would be affected by these cuts meet an economic need, removing them endangers jobs and exposes the territories to business relocations (Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand, Airbus in Toulouse, etc.)", he indicates. one to the National Federation of Merchant Aviation (Fnam), which federates the French companies.

Another proposal of the Citizens' Convention, which will be the subject of a bill debated next year, worries the French aviation sector even more: the introduction of a “reinforced kilometric eco-contribution” of 30 euros per ticket for flights of less than 2,000 kilometers, 60 euros for flights of more than 2,000 kilometers in economy class [180 and 400 euros in business class].

"This proposal alone would cost French air transport around 4.2 billion euros," Fnam reacts.

An unbearable burden for a sector which is currently playing for its survival.

"

"Begin work with all players in the aviation sector"

This environmental tax does not appear in the demands that will be brought this Saturday.

On the other hand, the collective demands the end of the exemptions granted to the aviation sector (elimination of the exemption from the kerosene tax, VAT reduced to the standard rate of 20%, end of regional and local subsidies, etc.).

For his part, Maxime Combes insists on yet another demand: "the need to initiate work with all players in the aviation sector, in particular employees, to develop a plan for the relocation of jobs and the retraining of the aeronautics sector. .

"Even if the companies and the State are pushing for, nothing says that one day we find the level of air traffic before the crisis," he underlines.

And the more we delay the conversion of the aviation sector, the more it will be suffered and brutal.

"

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* The share of air transport in greenhouse gas emissions in France is the subject of different estimates.

With 5 million tonnes emitted, domestic air traffic (including overseas and non-commercial) represented 2.8% of CO2 emissions from the transport sector in 2017 and 1.4% of total emissions in France, indicates figures from the DGAC.

However, the effect of air travel on climate change is not limited to CO2 emissions.

The NGOs also invite us to take into account the water vapor [the famous white streaks in the sky] which, emitted at very high altitude, contribute to the greenhouse effect.

** Globally, growth estimates, before the Covid-19 crisis, were based on more than 40,000 planes in the sky in 20 years and 8.2 billion passengers in 2037, against 4.1 in 2018.

*** In exchange for public aid allocated to Air France, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, asked the airline to give up lines for which there is a rail alternative of less than 2h30.

“Which amounts to doing nothing, point out Maxime Combes like Agathe Bounfour.

Only three lines are concerned and, moreover, the minister had excluded connecting flights.

So that we can always do Paris-Lyon, Paris-Nantes or Paris-Bordeaux by plane, simply, we no longer leave Orly but from Roissy.

"

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