Elites’ private jets drive more emissions than all flights leaving one of world’s biggest airports, study finds

Private jets produced more emissions than all flights at a major international airport in 2023, according to a new report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).

The ICCT found that that the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of private jets outweighed the emissions of all flights, including commercial ones, departing London’s Heathrow airport in 2023. Just one private jet produces as much GHG emissions as 177 cars or nine heavy-duty trucks, and there has been an increasing trend in private jet emissions over the past decade, the report states.

“Private jets are a surprisingly large source of air and climate pollution,” ICCT aviation fellow Daniel Sitompul said.

“It’s pretty well known that in a typical year, private jets are responsible for about 2 percent of aviation emissions,” ICCT research director and co-author of the new report Dan Rutherford told The Washington Post. “What we’ve done for the first time is, we’ve basically used flight trajectory data to break that out into the individual contributions of airports and countries.”

The report measures and maps the GHG emissions produced globally by private jets throughout 2023 through a combination of data sources including worldwide flight paths, engine emission databases and airport coordinates, according to the report. ICCT then used the data to “spatially allocate fuel use and emissions to airports and countries for about 94% of private jet activity globally,” according to the report.

Data also indicated that GHG emissions from private jets have increased globally from 2013 to 2023, according to the report.

ICCT compared these data with Heathrow airport’s 2023 sustainability report that notes the emissions of its departures that year, the report indicates. Heathrow is Europe’s busiest airport and is now the fourth busiest in the world, though it was the seventh busiest in 2023, according to Time Out.

Though several environmentalists, celebrities and Democrats shun GHG emissions and support policies that seek to limit them, many of them have been caught using private jets to fly to and from occasions like sporting events and climate change policy summits. For example, the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference ushered in guests who arrived on private jets and proceeded to exchange ideas about cutting GHG emissions.

Prominent celebrities that preach about climate change initiatives while still regularly using private jets include Leonardo DiCaprio, Taylor Swift, Oprah and Steven Spielberg among several others. Notably, Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also recently defended his private jet usage while on his “fighting oligarchy” tour.

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