Did the minister crack under the pressure? This Tuesday evening, a delegation of elected officials was received at the Ministry of Ecological Transition to meet Clément Beaune. It is necessary to believe that the tenant of 246 boulevard Saint-Germain heard the hundred people present on the sidewalk opposite.
Mobilized on the initiative of elected officials and associations concerned by the nuisances of Roissy, Orly and Le Bourget airports, including the Association for the Defense against Air Pollution (Advocnar), the demonstrators, including many local residents, s protest against the forthcoming adoption of the Environmental Noise Prevention Plan (PPBE) in the Consultative Committee on the Environment.
Elected officials and residents demand a drop in air traffic
Announced last December, this regulatory document, which we were able to consult, is based on a hypothesis of an increase in air traffic of the order of 180,000 additional flights per year at Roissy, which would then increase from 500,000 to 680,000 annual flights. This is precisely what Terminal 4 at Charles-de-Gaulle airport would have brought, a project abandoned by the government in February 2021. “It is the opposite of what we are asking, explains Audrey Boehly, spokesperson of the association No to T4, we are campaigning for a reduction in air traffic. For several months, elected officials and residents have been denouncing the effects of aviation on their health, nature and the climate.
Nuisances with serious health consequences
If technological measures have been mentioned by the government to reduce these effects, these do not convince the demonstrators. “Today there is no technological solution for reducing noise and bringing it down below the tolerable threshold of the WHO (below 45 decibels A Lden during the day and 40 decibels A Lden at night – Editor’s note ), adds Audrey Boehly. And the observation is the same at the environmental level. Same observation for the environmental aspect.
Sleep disorders, cognitive disorders, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases. The social cost was estimated by Ademe at 6.1 billion euros annually for airborne noise alone. “These nuisances can cause the loss of up to three years of life expectancy in good health”, indignantly Eugénie Ponthier, deputy mayor of Epinay-sur-Seine (93) and signatory of a letter sent by 300 elected officials to the Minister for the Ecological Transition.
The example of less flying Dutch
The only solution for elected officials and residents: to reduce traffic. This is why they were joined by their counterparts from Orly and Le Bourget airports, also victims of air traffic. All are asking for a reduction of almost 10% in air traffic compared to the figures recorded in 2019, the last year before Covid-19, i.e. a ceiling of 440,000 movements at Roissy, 200,000 at Orly (the current ceiling there is at 250,000) and 50,000 for Le Bourget (against 55,000 currently).
“This is what was done at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, with traffic similar to that of Roissy, it proves that it is possible. That it’s a political decision, ”adds Audrey Boehly.
Curfews for all airports in the region
This request for limitation is in addition to another, just as important for local residents, that of the curfew. Today, only Orly airport has an established curfew from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m.: “Unfortunately, derogations are granted with a vengeance and it is not respected”, comments Eugénie Ponthier who campaigns with the other elected officials for an extension of these limits.
For the airports of Seine-Saint-Denis, it is simpler, there is no curfew. This is why elected officials are asking for their establishment, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. for that of Le Bourget.
The ceiling in discussion, the curfews are no
Contacted by 20 minutes, Clément Beaune praised the quality of “a calm dialogue” and the “quality exchanges” which will continue and affirms that he has proposed a method to make concrete progress in the fight against airport nuisances: “By the summer, impact studies will be launched in the very short term by accelerating the schedule initially established. This approach will make it possible to establish and analyze several scenarios of additional restrictions on Ile-de-France airports (caps, curfews, etc.). »
A dialogue that the delegation of elected officials recognizes, but through a press release published on Wednesday, they deplore that the minister “refuses to raise the question of the curfew”. “The promise of Mr. Clément Beaune to study the capping of Roissy, Orly and Le Bourget airports must absolutely lead to concrete measures to limit air traffic downwards, in order to protect the health of nearly two million Ile-de-France residents” , comments Françoise Brochot, president of ADVOCNAR.
All are now waiting for the minister to keep his word, he who promised to contact them again by the end of May.