Marie Dupin-a Fresh Look at the News

France Info 4th May 2023

The News Personified—a fresh look at the news

A short daily humorous piece on French state radio ‘France Info’

Every morning, the journalist Marie Dupin takes on the role of a personality, an event, a place or a fact at the heart of the news.  In this instalment we learn that ‘In France, the government has even allowed the private jet to escape the ban on short flights introduced by the Climate and Resilience Act.’  What better illustration of the humbug that is official climate talk.

Intro: You are a private jet that reaches new heights

Marie Dupin.  Yes, since last summer with its mega fires and terrible heat waves, I have become a symbol of ecological aberration, ultra-polluting and a privilege of the very rich.

I pollute in one hour as much as a French person does in a year.

Faced with the polemics and the political declarations calling for the regulation of the sector, one could have expected a decrease in sales and flights, in short a slight beginning of awareness. 

Not at all, the more I have a bad reputation, the more I fly and the more people buy me.  In the 2000s we private jets were barely 10,000 in the sky, today we are more than 23,000, and last year we flew more than 5 million times, according to a report published this week by a group of American millionaires who are calling for more taxes to fight global warming. 

One of these millionaires decided to abandon me, the private jet, believing, and I quote, ‘that it is impossible to reconcile the slightest concern for the environment and humanity with the supreme selfishness that is jumping into a big jet alone.

Q. Since you are talking about the Americans, are they the leaders in these jet trips?

Marie Dupin.  Yes, the most active American high-flyer is Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, who was outraged at the beginning of the year that a website was publishing the details of his travels; last year Elon Musk made 171 flights, which is not bad going, one of which lasted only 6 minutes and he alone contributed to the burning of 800,000 litres of aviation fuel.  The millionaire authors of the report are asking the US administration to simply introduce new taxes on fuel and on the purchase of private aircraft.  If these measures were implemented, Elon Musk would have paid 4 million dollars last year.

In Europe, too, traffic has increased to the point where, according to the industry, private jet flights now account for 17% of European flights, with France, Germany and the UK leading the way.  No regulation is on the agenda.  In France, the government has even allowed me, the private jet, to escape the ban on short flights introduced by the Climate and Resilience Act.