Bertrand Picard, researcher, psychiatrist and climate activist, was the guest of Bell RTL this Wednesday. On Martin Buxand’s microphone, he spoke of the “hostile” situation in aviation, which, according to him, should be taxed and “treated like everyone else”. He also discusses a personal hydrogen flight project that could be the future of the field.
When receiving an ecologist, it is traditional to ask how he came about and how he gets around. Bertrand Picard doesn’t say how he made the trip from his native Switzerland, but explains that he “liked the train for short and medium trips.” However, he admits that he has not banned air travel: “During long trips, I pay back my carbon bill in full. For now, I think this is all we can do.“
Yet in the case of aviation, the analyst believes that kerosene should be taxed, otherwise, “ It is a mutation“:”Aviation has always wanted to escape taxation, Paris agreements, and I think it should be treated like everybody else.“, he says. To do this, he recommends that each passenger be “In the price of their ticket, is the carbon tax it emits.“
From then on, “low cost” travel will be only a distant memory. When our correspondent asked if he wanted a flight.reserved for the rich“, his interlocutor replies: “No, it’s not today for those who want to go somewhere.“He explains:”When we see the call price for Brussels – Madrid is 19 euros, we think that we are going to Madrid not because we want to go to Madrid, but because it costs 19€, why stay at home when we can go for 19€. That’s ridiculous. Unless it is very cheap, these people will not want to travel.“He asserts:”The carbon tax should be integrated into the price of the ticket, otherwise, we’re walking on our heads.“
A hydrogen plane
Taxation may not be the only solution to reducing aviation’s carbon footprint. The Swiss are working on a hydrogen flight project: “I am at the beginning of the project. What I want is to show what we can do on the plane. The solar plane was an icon, and not all of us are going to fly with the solar plane. Whereas, I think we can mostly fly with hydrogen aviation, and I want to prove it.“
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