Arthur Delaborde with AFP / Photo credit: Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP
The green plane, an ambition shared by Emmanuel Macron. The President of the Republic unveiled and developed several measures last Friday. To achieve this goal, the main leaders of the air sector also dined at the Élysée last week. And this Monday, the President of the Republic is in the aisles of the Paris Air Show.
It was not first on board a plane but a helicopter that Emmanuel Macron arrived here at Le Bourget: the latest from Airbus, the H160. Emmanuel Macron then immediately attended a demonstration on the tarmac where he could see Rafale loops or one of Cassio’s hybrid electric propulsion aircraft.
The President then went to the Airbus stand where the low-carbon aircraft project was presented to him, before going to the place dedicated to the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) where the President was able to discuss with three astronauts, including Thomas Pesquet.
Not having to “ask people to choose between a demanding social model and the climate”
During this visit, the president spoke in favor of an economic and social model based on “innovation” and “industrial strategy” in order to achieve “reasonable”, “transparent” and “non-punitive” ecological sobriety. , against a model where it would be necessary to “give up growth”. “Well-organized sobriety, if I may say ‘non-punitive’, understood by all, shared by all, reasonable, which means that we each make an effort, that we avoid what is useless and that makes it possible to reduce emissions , she is good,” said the head of state.
“The one that consists of saying ‘we have to stop everything in a way and we have to give up growth’, I don’t think it is reasonable”, he added, defending the “creation of wealth” which makes it possible to “finance the innovation you need to decarbonize”. “We who are already in a current account deficit, how do you expect us to finance our social model if we are no longer creating wealth?” he asked, anxious not to “ask people to choose between a model social demanding and the climate”. “You have to do both, at the same time too”.
In mid-May, Emmanuel Macron sparked a controversy by considering that it was no longer necessary to “add” environmental standards after the application of the European Union’s Green Pact, pleading for “stability” in this area. A “break” which had been very strongly criticized, especially among environmentalists.