Paris (AFP)

Against the pollution of air transport, the deputies François Ruffin (LFI) and Delphine Batho (Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity) presented on Tuesday a bill which intends to establish a "carbon quota" per individual to limit air travel.

A year ago, the two deputies had already tabled a bill for the airline sector which proposed to ban certain domestic flights that are not very competitive with the train. An idea now taken up by the government.

"At the time, we were treated as crazy, extremists, radical ecologists", recalls François Ruffin who intends, with his new bill tabled on Tuesday on the desk of the Assembly, "to put down a principle for the future".

"The objective is to set up an individual carbon quota system for the use of the plane (business trips are not affected). This quota would be the same for everyone. This would limit the possibility of flying for those who take it too much, everyone will have the opportunity to accumulate carbon points over time to be able to take a trip from time to time, "explained Delphine Batho.

"The scenarios in which we are today doubling the number of air passengers in the world every ten years, this is just not possible compared to the acceleration of climate change, when we exceed 45 ° in Siberia ", underlines the ex-minister PS of Ecology for which France must change method to hope to reach carbon neutrality in 2050.

"There are no green planes in sight and no salvation to wait either on the side of electricity", write the deputies for whom the prospect of agro-fuels only aims to compensate for the rise in emissions from the aviation sector between 2020 and 2035.

The bill, however, provides exceptions to quotas for territorial continuity with Corsica and the Overseas Territories, family reunification, health imperatives and everything related to respect for the dignity of people, the text said.

"It's been years that I think we have to move from a logic of taxes to a logic of quotas, of ceilings", explains François Ruffin for whom it is a question of "combining social justice and climate justice".

"We know that the richest 10% pay four times less carbon tax than the poorest 10%, while they emit eight times more CO2," he said, wondering how " being rich and being able to pay could justify polluting the air of others. "

© 2020 AFP