By Paul Homewood
.
The mega-rich are using private jets like taxis, warn climate scientists who tracked flights to calculate the planet-warming gases they release.
The scientists worked out that the carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to climate change, rose by 46% between 2019 and 2023.
Researchers traced all private flights globally, including summer weekend trips to Ibiza, Spain and travel to the Fifa World Cup and the UN climate conference in Dubai.
Flying in a private jet for a single hour can release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the average person produces in a year, according to the research team.
“There are a lot of people using these aircraft as taxis, where you cover whatever distance by aircraft simply because it’s more convenient,” Professor Stefan Gossling, from Sweden’s Linnaeus University, who led the research, said.
“If somebody’s flight emits in one hour as much as an average human being emits in a year – just to watch a soccer game – then perhaps it shows those people think they are outside the standards that we have as a global community.”
In 2023, private flights produced an estimated 15.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of 3.7 million petrol cars being driven over the course of a year, external – according to the research.
Overall, that is small compared to global carbon emissions. It represents about 1.8% of emissions from all air travel, and aviation is 4% of global emissions.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2lvq4el5vo
Maybe they should start with cancelling all future climate conferences and holding them on line then!
But there is a more serious issue here.
Putting taxes
What will they do to stop or at least reduce private flights?
Putting taxes on flights will not make the slightest difference to billionaires, showbiz luvvies, the political elite or big business.
And you can guarantee that whatever sanctions are put on private jets, the ordinary air traveller will be next in line.