Greenpeace protesters spray paint Air France plane in Paris

Activists claim President Emmanuel Macron's climate change bill doesn't go far enough

Greenpeace protesters spray an Air France plane with paint. AFP

Greenpeace activists spray painted an Air France plane in a protest coinciding with President Emmanuel Macron’s new climate change bill.

The group made its way on to a runway at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on Friday and daubed green paint on a parked Boeing 777.

Two protesters used a spray gun and a roller to paint the jet, while others used a ladder to climb on top of the plane, which had no passengers on board.

They unfurled banners that read ‘Climate Law: It does not fly high’, ‘Is there a pilot to save the climate?’ and ‘The solution: fewer planes’.

Greenpeace said the protest was in opposition to Mr Macron’s new climate change bill, widely seen as a means to burnish his environmental credentials ahead of the 2022 elections.

However, the group said the bill was “greenwashing” and not a far-reaching response to climate change.

The bill, under consideration by MPs, seeks to abolish short flights, ban the advertising of fossil fuels and take the most-polluting vehicles off the roads by 2030, among other measures.

However, the government's own independent climate watchdog said the measures would have a "limited impact" on reducing emissions.

Greenpeace said the bill still allows for airport extensions, more than a dozen of which it claims are planned.