Roissy terminal 4 (Val-d'Oise) will not emerge from the ground.
Barbara Pompili announced this the day after the presentation of the “Climate and Resilience” law, resulting from the work of the Citizens' Convention.
Is the abandonment of this gigantic project estimated between 7 and 9 billion euros a gesture for the climate?
Not sure or not only.
"If it gives up 40 million additional passengers per year, it is because the government does not believe in a return to normal in air transport", decrypts Raymond Woessner, geographer and author of "The air transport crisis , to another planet?
”(Atlande).
For him, the speech announcing a resumption of the curve by 2023-2024 is "incantatory".
The situation is catastrophic at the global level.
The number of passengers fell by 66% in 2020. France is not spared.
In mid-January, Aéroports de Paris (which manages Roissy and Orly) announced a 69% drop in people boarding.
Closed borders, travel restrictions and health uncertainties have weighed down the sky.
“In the business clientele, I believe we have passed a milestone, that we have seen the interest of visios.
It represents few passengers but a lot of revenue for the companies, remarks Raymond Woessner.
The big unknown remains the behavior of the new middle classes in Asia in particular.
One can imagine that as soon as they have the opportunity, these hundreds of millions of people will get back on the plane.
"
Even before the pandemic ground a large part of the global fleet, the aircraft, a major emitter of greenhouse gases, was singled out.
"For a Paris-Marseille, we reject 53 times more CO2 per passenger by traveling by air than by rail", counts Sarah Fayolle, spokesperson for Greenpeace.
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Her association is demanding pledges on terminal 4. “We are wary of the announcement effects, the minister is not talking about abandonment but about revising the project.
At the same time, the Climate and Resilience Bill has largely weakened the demands of the Citizen's Convention: to limit airport extensions throughout France, to prevent the takeoff of short flights as well.
"
The members of the Convention, citizens drawn by lot, had proposed to ban domestic air travel if there is an alternative by train, in less than 4 hours.
But the State has reduced the wing: we will stop the plane if there are no alternatives of less than 2:30.
"Of the fifteen most emitting lines, only three are concerned ...", fulminates Sarah Fayolle.
One solution, electrification?
Consumers are starting to feel guilty before buying a plane ticket.
In Sweden, the “flygskam” movement, (in French, “the shame of taking the plane”), had redirected some of the travelers from Greta Thunberg's country to the train.
The European Union seems ready to inject money into railways, including night trains.
This year, a Paris-Vienna line via Munich must be reopened, a portion of the legendary Orient-Express.
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Progress is already being made to reduce the consumption of aircraft engines.
The devices can run electric to the end of the track.
To save weight, carbon fiber, etc. is used.
Bertrand Piccard, who has traveled the world in a solar plane, calculates that "put end to end, we can reduce emissions by 15-20%, for the rest, we can compensate by investing from a few euros on each ticket decarbonisation projects.
Then we can reduce the compensation mechanisms as the energy efficiency of the planes increases, until they become almost neutral.
"
Airbus, for example, promises a range with electric, hydrogen and hybrid devices by 2035. That is to say tomorrow or almost.
“This industry has already shown its capabilities,” continues the Swiss aeronaut.
On the first flight in 1903 who imagined that we could cross an ocean?
Lindberg did it 24 years later.
At that time, who thought that we would exceed the sound barrier, something done in 1947 and that in 1969, men flew to the moon?
Each time complete revolutions.
"To mockers and those who doubt, the scholar warns:" Attention!
you may be ridiculous in the future.
"
