“It’s time to ban private jets.” Green deputy Julien Bayou said in an interview with Release I want to introduce a bill this fall aimed in particular at banning private jets. After the heat waves suffered in Europe and around the world, the drought and the forest fires, he asks you to address the “whim of the richest who are also the biggest polluters”.

“It is a question of justice. How to ask the population to make efforts, how to imagine a fair transition, if the richest are completely exempt from everything? Nailing the jets to the ground is returning them to the ground to reason”, believes the chosen one.

“In just one hour, a single private jet can emit two tons of CO2”

Julien Bayou explains that he is in contact with the anonymous host of the Twitter account “I Fly Bernard”, which denounces the too frequent use of private jets by billionaires, sometimes for short distances. Several other accounts have emerged in recent months, reproducing this pattern, there is therefore a Twitter page following the movements of Elon MuskTesla boss.

The parliamentarian cites the journal of the NGO Transport & Environment report that explained in May 2021 that in “just one hour, a single private jet can emit two tons of CO2”. But also that “private jets are 5 to 14 times more polluting than commercial aircraft (per passenger) and 50 times more polluting than trains.”

By comparison, a Frenchman emitted an average of 11 tons of CO2 equivalent in 2018, according to a document from the Ministry of Ecology.

The bill will be “very open”, assures the elected official who says that it has deputies from Nupes but also potentially from Modem, “we can even imagine a European initiative”.

“In September, we are working on the practical aspect, there is no shortage of clues,” says Julien Bayou, adding that “mega yachts and other ostentatious signs of pollution are also part of the package for a just transition.”