The government will propose an “increased eco-contribution” in 2024 for private commercial aviation, Transport Minister Clément Beaune announced Thursday before the National Assembly, during a debate on pollution caused by private jets.
“The subject is not anecdotal”, admitted the minister in the hemicycle, while expressing his hostility to the ban on private jet flights, carried by environmentalists as part of their day reserved at the Palais Bourbon .
In the finance law for 2023, a “70% increase in the private aviation fuel tax” was put in place, he recalled, agreeing that certain practices were “shocking, often offbeat, sometimes unacceptable.
“And I announce to you, we will go further if you agree in the budget for 2024 by proposing that private commercial aviation (…) may be subject to an additional contribution, an eco-contribution revised upwards, which will precisely allow these behaviors to be taken into account”, continued the Minister.
“The general ban gives a good conscience but does not advance the ecological transition in practice”, estimated Clément Beaune, underlining in particular the “legal obstacles” and the difficulty of defining and controlling exemptions.
Environmentalists proposed banning ‘non-scheduled passenger air transport services not operated commercially’, as well as non-scheduled public air transport services ‘in which the number of passengers is less than sixty’ .
It is a question of “bringing the rich back to Earth” by making them contribute to the ecological transition, pleaded MP Julien Bayou. “This is the measure that penalizes the fewest people but produces the maximum effects for the climate and the atmosphere,” he said.
The examination of the text, which was moving towards a rejection, could not be completed for lack of time, a “parliamentary niche” not being able to extend beyond midnight.
04/07/2023 02:16:26 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
