Elon Musk boards his private jet in Beijing in 2023
JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images
Private jet flights should be subject to a carbon tax to curb the growth of the sector’s carbon emissions, researchers say.
Private jet emissions rose 46% between 2019 and 2023, according to an analysis of 18.7 million flights by nearly 26,000 aircraft.
The flights were mainly for recreational purposes, with 1,846 private flights to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar alone. Other popular destinations include the Cannes Film Festival, the Super Bowl, and COP28 climate conference in Dubaiand the World Economic Forum in Davos. Trips to the south of France, Ibiza and other Spanish destinations peaked in the summer months as travelers headed for long weekends in the sun.
“A relatively small group of very wealthy people, because of their lifestyles and investments, is driving the emissions quite rapidly,” he says. Stefan Gössling Linnaeus University, Sweden.
Together with colleagues, Gössling used flight tracking data for millions of flights to paint a picture of private jet use around the world.
Flying by private jet is the most polluting form of travel, with a single flight emitting an average of 3.6 tonnes of CO2, The equivalent annual carbon footprint of someone living in Sweden.
Most private jet flights are short, with almost half of all flights covering a distance of less than 500 kilometers, according to the analysis. Most were in the US and Europe.
Total private jet emissions in 2023 were 15.6 megatons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to Tanzania’s annual emissions. In 2019 it is higher than 10.7 megatons.
Growth rates were distorted by the covid-19 pandemic. Unlike commercial aircraft, Which was greatly limited in 2020 and 2021private aviation showed only a small decline in the number of flights and emissions in 2020, before returning to growth the following year.
Many of the most-used private jets are owned by super-rich celebrities, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, pop star Jay-Z and entertainment personality Kim Kardashian, according to the data. Compiled by Celebrity Jet website.
“This is about the difference in greenhouse gas production,” he says Mark Maslin at University College London. “It’s not even the 1 percent; it’s the richest 0.1 percent in the world who click their fingers and fly private jets.”
Huge personal emissions from the super-rich According to Gössling, the appetite for reducing personal emissions risks eroding. “If the very rich don’t need to cut emissions … then we have no reason for anyone else to cut emissions, because everyone else is emitting less,” he says.
Gössling would like to see a carbon tax applied to the use of private jets. “We can put a price on every tonne (of carbon) emitted, and I think everyone will agree that it’s only fair that the rich pay the cost of the damage they cause,” he says.
Others would like governments to go even further. Sean Currie The campaign group Stay Grounded wants to see a total ban on the use of private jets. “Half of these flights are short-haul flights,” he says. “Trains could easily be replaced if we banned private jets and then invested in real infrastructure.”
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