France’s minister delegate for transport Clément Beaune says he will try to talk his EU counterparts into banning or restricting private business jet use when the politicians get together in October. Beaune said he wants the EU involved so that members “have the same rules and impact is maximised,” according to Corporate Jet Investor. Beaune says the huge carbon output for such a small number of people can’t be justified and he favors an all-out ban. But he’s already said he’ll accept regulation and restriction, although he didn’t discuss what that might look like.
The business jet industry reacted predictably. “It is very unfortunate that the minister goes for the easiest route by blaming CEOs that are keeping France and the EU afloat,” Robert Baltus, chief operations officer of the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA), told CJI. It’s thought Beaune came up with the idea because of Twitter accounts tracking the movements of corporate aircraft and pointing out the short duration of some flights, some of which may be repositioning flights. “It is with astonishment that we realised that the political agenda of the French republic is now defined based on a Twitter account,” Baltus said.
“It is with astonishment that we realised that the political agenda of the French republic is now defined based on a Twitter account.”
I can’t see how anyone who has been paying attention could be surprised by this development. The only surprise is that it took this long for such sentiments to be made in public. THAT development is ample evidence that these guardians of green no longer fear the ancient consequences of naked hypocrisy.
Times have changed. Many readers of this site probably have no idea how angry photos, like the one used to illustrate this story, make the average Frenchman (American, German, Japanese….)
Might be illogical but it is there.
Besides, who on earth wears a suit anymore?
People that can afford a business jet might be suit wearers.
Wedding and funeral attendees?
Is there something in the water in France? Is THIS what we get for saving them? Whoever thought of this nutty idea better watch out; besides, how will John Kerry get around there?
Agreed
I would’t be too concerned. This politician is a delegate to the EU. In Europe, political parties generally send their misfits, trouble-makers and black sheep to an EU posting to keep them out of the limelight until people forget whatever was the cause of their ousting. Airbus, Daher, SNECMA (SAFRAN), and Dassault are major players in corporate aviation. I see a smack down coming to this green man, whose strange ideas are based on the false premise (manufactured crisis) that carbon dioxide – what humans exhale and plants need to make oxygen – is harmful. Although I don’t believe in the fiction, a much greater carbon footprint is created by the manufacture of the Brie and Chablis these sort of people consume in vast quantities.
That’s a misunderstanding of what human-driven climate change is about, but that’s a topic for another day.
That being said, this is still just another case of a politician picking on GA (bizjets) because so few people have any interaction with it, so who cares if it’s taking away a toy of the rich. If they were actually concerned about climate impact, they’d look at commercial aviation and the rules they have in place that lead to commercial jets taking off mostly-empty (or in some cases during the pandemic, completely empty) just to keep their gate.
Won’t hear a word against Brie.
Biz jets can offer to carbon offset.
France: Flatulence is a threat to the environment, and going forward we propose a ban on all high-fibre foods.
Government good, speaking against government….BAD!!!!!
The hypocrisy is strong with this one.
I’m not sure if I care either way.
The EU is in a rather boxed in at the moment for both fuel and bio-fuel materials.
Basically they have bigger fish to fry.
But doesn’t frying also emit carbon?
To extend this logic, any hydrocarbon burning transportation device operating at less than 100% payload, would either be banned, or have to pay a penalty.
Bingo, and that’s why France has already banned short haul flights within the country.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexledsom/2022/04/03/france-travel-many-short-haul-flights-outlawed-from-april/?sh=17c891f77618
Of course, VIP’s like John Kerry will be exempt.
Inexplicable. This “minister” doesn’t seem very smart and I’m sure the French aviation industry must be wondering about the sanity of this guy. Talk is cheap and his words have little value.
I’m sure that the people at Airbus Corporate Jets will be very happy to hear about this. Especially since they are selling one of the largest corporate jets, a converted airliner set up to carry eight or ten people in lavish style. It is a typical move to pander to the ignorant masses who hate the 1 percenters anyway. I predict there will be a flurry of public announcements explaining how corporate aviation enhances major businesses and makes them more competitive in the world market.
The problem I and many others have with “climate science” is that the pronouncements from the IPCC are not examined with sufficient rigor. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Most people I see really pushing the Climate Change mitigations do not appear to understand science or the scientific method. How many of them know that the scientists whose research underpins the IPCC summary do not write it? No one who knows what science actually entails would ever utter things like “Trust the science” and “science denier”.
“Science is the organized skepticism in the reliability of expert opinion.” ~ Richard P. Feynman
“We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty.” ~ Richard P. Feynman
“Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, is it reasonable?” ~ Richard P. Feynman
“No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race.” ~ Richard P. Feynman
Has anyone yet actually measured a variance in the total greenhouse effect yet?
I would assume it’s been decreasing as solar winds scrub off more atmosphere each year.
It would seem silly to ban flying without first analyzing the situation first.
Much science on atmosphere, but “…solar winds scrub off more atmosphere each year.” is not correct.
Accurate thermometers like weather balloons and satellite sensors, and tide gages, show only continuation of the slow warming trend since the end of a cool era circa 1750 AD. The cool era that helped drive Viking famers out of SW Greenland – climate was stable then, which puts the lie to IPCC claims of runaway warming from positive feedback.
The effect CO2 can have is small, limited by the ‘saturation’ effect of overlap of spectra of carbon dioxide and dihydrogen monoxide vapour, most of the increase has already been realized.
What? Ha ha ha ha ha! Talk about pandering and virtue signaling…
What should be obvious is that the real power brokers who really call the shots in essentially every government in the world are the same ones who own abd fly on private jets. This guy will be lucky if he makes it home.
… and just like that — a day later — Kalifornia’s CARB is announcing they will not allow ANY internal combustion engines to be sold there after 2035. I think we need to get the NIH on all of this nuttiness. There may be another MORE insidious mental virus going around even worse than Covid.
Larry S… Didn’t the Whitehouse just release a ‘study’ that suggested a preferred approach to going zero net carbon was to breach four dams that produce several thousand megawatts of power (RELIABLY, CONSISTENTLY, and CHEAPLY, whether the wind blows, snow is falling, or fog blocks the sun from activating the thousands of acres of subsidized solar panels made in a country that’s very, very touchy about criticisms — Obviously Not the US or EU).
We are all carbon based life forms… will humans be banned too?
How about having the bureaucrats actually study why the trips occur, and lead the way by changing the things the government is doing that cause them to take place?
In fact, we could spend the next couple decades trying to unwind all the policies in the US and EU that contribute to people burning more fossil fuels. Or, we can whip up some good ole class warfare sentiments and slowly burn down civilization.
What we need to ban are the paychecks for people in government who pull these stunts.
Too late. All life on earth is gone in 12 yrs…..or is it 15 years? I can’t remember.