The French government wants to tackle private jet flights for climate reasons – and is pushing for a European solution.
The brand new Twitter accounts are called “I Fly Bernard” or “L’avion de Bernard” and are being followed by tens of thousands. Its involuntary star is Bernard Arnault, founder and head of the French luxury goods group LVMH (to which brands such as Louis Vuitton, Kenzo, Dior and Tiffany belong). Because these accounts act as “flight trackers” based on the American model: They try. to trace the flight movements of Arnault’s private jet and now also of other French entrepreneurs.
Their goal is to denounce the CO2 consumption of the jet planes named Falcon or Global Express (list price $40 million). Arnault’s jet, for example, is said to have emitted 176 tons of carbon dioxide on 18 flights in the month of May. That would be about as much CO2 as the average EU citizen would consume in just under twenty years. The flights ran from Paris via Nice to Palermo; another took only ten minutes from west to east London.
The machine has flown fifteen times between Paris and Brussels since 2020. A lightning-fast and comfortable TGV circulates on this route in 80 minutes. In general, the train emits 50 times less CO2 per passenger than a private jet. Even a scheduled flight impacts the climate ten times less per capita than a small business plane.
The Twitter accounts take these figures from official information from the French “Aviation civile” (civil aviation) and the private European environmental organization “Transport & Environment”. They also counter the accusation that they disregard the private sphere of the jet owners. “We follow the plane, not Bernard,” notes one of the accounts.
However, another account also publishes flight numbers of jets from other industrialists such as Martin Bouygues or Vincent Bolloré and calls for further publicly available information to be shared.
The digital lawyer Guillaume Champeau warns such Twitter pages of legal consequences: “Just because you have private data does not give you the right to spread them further.” In the USA, rappers like Drake or the influencer Kylie Jenner have demanded the deletion of such “flight trackers”; the entrepreneur Elon Musk reportedly offered “his” pursuer $5,000 for it.
In France, the debate is different – namely political. Green leader Julien Bayou said it was “time to stop private jets”. In the fall, he will make a corresponding proposal to the National Assembly in Paris. Manon Aubry of the insoumis (Indomitable) left party also tweeted: “Of course we have to ban private jets. We have a summer of climate chaos with drought, wildfires and floods. Efforts are required from all French people – but a minority of the ultra-rich should continue to pollute with impunity?”
The record of private jets
Flying is generally considered an environmental sin due to the high CO2 consumption. With private flights, this balance is even worse with relatively high per capita emissions.
Private air traffic emits around 7,500 tons of CO2 every year – according to a study by tourism researchers Stefan Gössling and Andreas Humpe.
According to this, the most frequent flyers are responsible for around half of all air traffic emissions. But according to the researchers, this is only a maximum of one percent of the population.
Private jets are exempt from EU emissions trading and are therefore not taxed by some European countries. The organization “Transport & Environment” calculates that with an applied kerosene tax for the EU and Great Britain, one could earn around 325 million euros by taxing private flights. valentine
An activist from the same party, Rym Khadhraoui, goes even further and comments sarcastically: “The private jet ban shocks many, but it’s a good compromise to the guillotine!”
Internet forums are echoing that the attacks on the “billionaires” and “super-rich” are “populist” and fueling a debate about envy. The indomitable boss Jean-Luc Mélenchon apparently has no qualms about flying either, after he boasted on a tour of South America in July that he only flies business class.
The responsible representative of the French government is now also involved in the heated debate. Transport Minister Clément Beaune said all citizens must make a proportionate effort, adding: “I think we need to act and regulate private jet flights.”
His team specified that a new set of rules at European level would undoubtedly be most effective. It is not about a ban on business jets; However, self-restraints or new taxes on such flights are conceivable.
Government spokesman Olivier Véran is also inviting those responsible for European transport to take up the issue at their next conference in October. After all, he pointed out that many private jet flights served an important function thanks to their “great reactivity”.
The Twitter account “I Fly Bernard” counters with a private jet hop between the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Saint-Vincent, operated by the French founding family Pinault – hardly a business flight. Main target Bernard Arnault’s jet, however, recorded no movement this summer.
