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A private jet lands above the snow-capped mountains of St. Moritz in Switzerland. Emissions from private jets, which have a disproportionate impact on the environment, more than doubled in Europe in 2022.
Image Alliance | Image Alliance | Getty Images
A boom in private jet aviation shows no signs of slowing down.
Analysis released Thursday by environmental campaign group Greenpeace showed the number of private jet flights in Europe last year rose 64% to a record 572,806.
Emissions from private jets, which have a disproportionate impact on the environment, more than doubled in Europe in 2022, exceeding the annual per capita carbon emissions of 550,000 European Union residents.
More than half (55%) of private jet flights in Europe last year were ultra-short journeys of less than 750 kilometers (466 miles), Greenpeace said, noting that these were journeys that could have be made by train or ferry instead.
It comes at a time when Europe is grappling with a severe winter drought and soon after the region’s driest summer for at least 500 years. Scientists warned In late January, the lack of groundwater across the continent meant the water situation was now “very precarious”.
“The alarming growth in private jet flying is in stark contrast to all the climate science telling us to reduce CO2 emissions immediately to avoid total disaster,” said Klara Maria Schenk, Transport for Greenpeace’s Mobility for All campaign.
“Immediately reducing transport to oil is a no-brainer, starting with a ban on ultra-polluting, energy-wasting private jets that bring no value to people, but burden them with harmful emissions, toxic microparticles and noise. , harming our climate, environment and health,” Schenk said.
The analysis revealed that the countries with the most private jet flights in Europe last year were the UK, France and Germany.
The most popular destinations for private jet flights in Europe in 2022 were Nice, the city on the French Riviera, Paris, the French capital, and Geneva, the second most populous city in Switzerland.
Growing demand
Greenpeace said the research, which was conducted by Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft, was based on data provided by aviation analysis company Cirium. It assessed all private flights to and from European countries from 2020 to 2022 and separated those trips by year, route and aircraft type.
Certain types of small aircraft with less than three seats were excluded because they were trips primarily used for leisure. The data also excludes flights to and from the same airport and travel to and from airports without a unique International Air Transport Association code.
The use of private jets has been hover for a while. Indeed, major private jet makers have scrambled to keep pace with rising demand since the coronavirus pandemic began, with early buyers fueling record sales.
A boom in wealth, stronger leisure demand and the gradual easing of Covid-19 restrictions are some of the factors seen driving the surge in demand for private jets.
Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion, Scientist Rebellion and Last Generation block the entrance to fixed-base operator Milano Linate Prime’s airport facility in Milan on November 10, 2022, demanding a ban on private jets , taxing frequent travelers and introducing taxation of the most polluters.
Piero Cruciatti | AFP | Getty Images
Emissions from private jets in Europe have grown at a faster rate than commercial aviation in recent years.
Data from the non-governmental organization Transport & Environment show that private jets are up to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes per passenger, and up to 50 times more polluting than trains.
In fact, in just one hour, a single private jet can emit two metric tons of carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, the average person in the EU emits 8.2 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent over an entire year.
Earlier this month, the world’s leading climate scientists published a “survival guide for humanity”, calling for a deep, rapid and sustained reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to limit warming to 1, 5 degrees Celsius.
This temperature threshold refers to the ambitious goal of the historic Paris Agreement.
It is widely seen as a crucial global goal as so-called tipping points become more likely beyond this level of global warming. Tipping points are thresholds at which small changes can lead to dramatic changes in Earth’s entire life support system.