French Government bans outdoor heaters at cafés and restaurants to tackle climate change

Under the new guidance all the doors of all heated or air-conditioned buildings will have to remain closed

The French Government has unveiled plans to ban heaters used by cafes and restaurants on outdoor terraces by early 2021.

Under the new guidance, cafes and restaurants will have to close all the doors of all heated or air-conditioned buildings, which are now open to the public.

Heated terraces started to increase in big French cities when the government extended its indoor smoking ban.

Barbara Pompili, Minister of Ecological Transition, said: “We put an end to ecologically aberrant practices, which lead to unjustified overconsumption of energy.

The government has also announced measures, which aim to speed up the decarbonisation of heating and improve the energy efficiency of households.

The plan is to reduce the number of oil-fired boilers by 200,000 every year.

However, almost 3.5 million homes are still heated with oil – per household that is equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of three cars every year.

The Minister added: “Housing will have to be well-insulated and well-heated. This is a major ecological and social advance: people living in the least well-insulated housing will be able to require their landlord to do work.”

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