Long postponed, the ban on heated terraces comes into force on April 1

The ban on heated terraces, long postponed, will finally come into force this Friday, April 1, throughout France.

Lovers of coffee or lunch on the terrace will have to show courage, since the mercury should show 3 degrees in Paris, 9° in Marseille or even 2° in Lille this Friday.

No change for the inhabitants of Rennes and Lyon, where the device was already prohibited.

To discover

• SIMULATOR - Are you paid well?

Read alsoBack to the terraces: nine spring beers and their pairings

The decree of March 30, 2022 implements the law of August 22, 2021 on "

".

This legislative provision, which turns out to be a translation of part of the 146 proposals of the Citizen's Climate Convention, is presented as the cornerstone of the government's desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% ( GHG) French by 2030.

500,000 tonnes of CO2 each year

Emmanuelle Wargon, Minister Delegate to the Minister for Ecological Transition, believes that "

", while indicating that their ban will "

”.

These 500,000 tonnes of CO2 are equivalent to the average annual emissions of 300,000 cars in France.

Read alsoDoes the ban on heated terraces put restaurants at risk?

In January 2020, the Négawatt association calculated the carbon footprint of heated terraces.

Thus, a terrace 15 meters long by 5 wide, equipped with 5 heaters on 14 hours a day between November and March, would emit 13.7 tonnes of Co2 in four months.

Or the equivalent of a "

" according to the study.

13.7 tonnes of Co2 also means 14 Paris-New York round trips by plane, 2,603 ​​Paris-Bordeaux round trips by train and the production of 3,425 kilos of beef.

A measure that took time to take hold

The effective implementation of this decision throughout the country took longer than expected.

While Barbara Pompili had expressed her desire to apply it in July 2020, the Parliamentary Commission responsible for examining this bill decided, in March 2021, to postpone its application.

The reason ?

Give room for maneuver to a profession already hard hit by the health crisis and the containment measures which have led to the closure of all French establishments.

With a turnover already largely weakened by the health crisis, many restaurateurs fear that this decision will impact their activities by dissuading certain customers from coming to eat, especially when temperatures drop.

According to the National Group of Independent Hotel and Restaurant Operators, "

".

The Bertrand decree of November 16, 2006, which introduced a ban on smoking inside bars and restaurants from January 1, 2008, had “

” accelerated the deployment of terraces.

Of the 13,500 terraces in Paris, 60% have installed gas heaters for their customers according to the GNI-Synhorcat union.

Although the decree stipulates that non-compliance with this ban is "

", the Ministry's website of Energy Transition specifies that "

".

However, support does not mean exemption.