The government announced Thursday that it was abandoning the project to expand terminal 4 at Roissy airport, because it is not in phase with the fight against global warming.

Good news for environmental associations, which despite everything remain wary.

They ask for a firm commitment from the government on the subject.

Not sufficiently in phase with the fight against global warming, the project to extend terminal 4 at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport is now considered obsolete by the government.

Barbara Pompili, the Minister for Ecological Transition, formalized it Thursday in an interview with 

Le Monde

.

However, environmental defense associations remain cautious.

>> Find Europe Soir with Julian Bugier in replay and podcast here

The government "leaves the door open to a future extension project"

Greenpeace believes, for example, that this is not a real abandonment and that an expansion project could come back to the fore.

At the microphone of Europe 1, Audrey Boehly, spokesperson for the collective "No to terminal 4", first confides her optimism: "We are delighted with this announcement. This is very good news for the climate."

But she does not want to stop there: "What we are now asking the government to make is a firm commitment on this subject. It can do so within the framework of the climate law which includes an article on the prohibition of airport extensions. For now, the government is leaving the door open to a future expansion project. "

>> READ ALSO

- Climate law: Greenpeace recommendations to reduce the impact of short flights

An original project worth 7 billion euros

Thursday, the government summoned the ADP group, of which the State is the majority shareholder, to review its copy and to work on a new project, without extension of the Paris-Charles de Gaulle platform, by promoting ecological transition.

The original project, valued at 7 billion euros, was to accommodate more planes, or around 32 million additional passengers.

This represents the equivalent of traffic at Orly airport.

This massive expansion was based on forecasts of exponential growth in air traffic which, before the health crisis, was expected to double by 2037 with 500 more planes every day.

But the spectacular and lasting fall in air traffic has made this project obsolete in the eyes of the government.