Skip to main content

France abolishes short domestic flights to three destinations in favour of train travel

 




On 2 December 2022, the European Commisson approved the right for France to abolish flights between cities that are linked by train travel of less than 2.5 hours as part of the country’s 2021 Climate Law, announced Euronews. The ban, a first for European Union member states, will be valid for three years and then re-assessed. The use of private jets is being reviewed. 

 

Initially, the ban will only affect air travel between Paris Orly airport and Nantes, Lyon, and Bordeaux. Connecting flights will also be affected.

 

When the idea was first mooted, the Union of French Airports (UAF) and the European branch of Airports Council International (ACI Erurope) contested the move which prompted an in-depth European Commission investigation on whether to approve the idea or not. 

 

The Greenpeace France spokesperson said that the ban was a move in the right direction, but it was not ambitious and must go futher because only three routes were affected.   

 

The French government transport minister said he was proud that France is a pioneer in the policy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Although the 2021 Climate Law is in place, the short haul flight ban will take a while to be enforced because it needs to be submitted for public consultation and reviewed by the Council of State.

 

For private jets, the European federation for clean transport, called Transport and Environment (T&E),  published a report revealing that they are up to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights per passenger mile, and 50 times worse than trains. A review of the use of private jets may call for the imposition of taxes and/or restrictions, rather than a ban. France has the highest number of private jets in Europe, according to aviation data, with most flights traveling from Paris to the French Riviera. Private jets accounted for 10% of all departure flights in France in 2019, with half travelling less than 300 miles (483 kilometres).












 

 

MARTINA NICOLLS

MartinaNicollsWebsite

 

Martinasblogs

Publications

Facebook

Paris Website

Animal Website

Flower Website

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES 


MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou
8 comments
Read more