Three times more train journeys, longer stays if you go far away, and the car only as an option: the think tank The Shift Project presented its plans on Thursday for “low carbon travel”.

When they travel, the French cover 42% of the distances by plane, 43% by car, and 10% by train.

And long trips (more than 900 kilometers from home) increased sharply between 2008 and 2019, mainly thanks to the plane.

However, "in order to contribute, like all sectors, to the objective of carbon neutrality (in 2050), long-distance mobility must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions at an annual rate of 5% per year", point out the authors of the report.

Long-distance mobility must therefore be electrified, and air traffic “gradually decrease”.

❓ How can we deeply transform our ways of #traveling to make them resilient to climate and energy shocks?

The answer in our new report: “Travelling low carbon”!


👉 All info on the post: https://t.co/ohneG8L4Lf #ilnousfautunplan

— The Shift Project (@theShiftPR0JECT) April 8, 2022


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Triple the share of the train to replace the plane

The Shift Project proposes a “gradual limitation of long-haul flights”, by limiting slots or increasing taxation, while taking into account “the issues specific to overseas departments and regions”.

Alternative offers to intercontinental air travel must therefore "make much slower travel, stays that last longer, and closer, intra-European destinations attractive", according to this report of nearly 200 pages intended for citizens but also to tourism and mobility players, and led by Béatrice Jarrige, consultant and former chief economist of the SNCF.

Slower and carbon-free tourist offers should “be accompanied by a flexibility in taking leave (to be able to take vacations less often but longer)”.

To replace the plane, the plan provides in particular to triple the share of the train in these long journeys.

But it will be necessary to invest in rail at French and European level so that the offer is varied (regional, high-speed, night, long-distance trains), international and accessible to all, with a reduction in VAT.

To travel, the car "electric, small, light, not very powerful and economical", will only be "complementary to train travel" and often rented, if you cannot ride a bicycle.

The implementation of this "long distance" component of the overall plan for the transformation of the French economy (PTEF), supported by the NGO, leads to a division by more than two of jobs in the air sector (-38,000 full-time equivalents ), but a doubling of the need in the rail sector (+37,000 FTE).

"Betting only on technological proposals (air hydrogenification, biofuels, energy efficiency of aircraft fleets, electrification of cars) increases the risks of no longer being able to travel in the decades to come", underline the authors of the report.

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