The battle against climate change is also a class struggle: while the poorest. A clear example is private jets ,. A study by the NGO International Clean Transportation Council (ICCT) published this Friday delves into this issue: each private jet generates so many greenhouse gases (GHG) as 177 cars or eight heavy trucks (but moving much less people or merchandise).
The report shows that private aviation issued in 2023 – we last data available – as many broadcasts as all flights that left Heathrow airport, the largest in Europe. The researchers also calculate that the 95 jets that will generate 5,000 tons of greenhouse gases.
In their report, they have identified 3.57 million private flights in 2023, and each aircraft issues 810 tons of annual gei, equivalent to the emissions of 177 cars or nine heavy trucks. Dan Rutherford, one of the researchers, says by mail: “Private airplanes are an important source of GHG contamination, and to a large extent not taxed. Given the wealth of their users, governments should consider taxing their emissions to generate income that supports the decarbonization of aviation and mitigation of climate change.”
This type of flights grew a lot in 2021 and 2022, coinciding with the reduction of commercial flights in the postcovid stage. According to the authors of the study, that last year, private airplanes issued about 23.74 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent equivalent (the unit with which greenhouse gases are measured), which represents almost 4% of total civil aviation emissions. In 2023, that figure descended to 19.5 million tons of CO₂E, although it is 25% higher than the figure of 10 years ago. As the number of commercial flights increase, that figure is a lower percentage over all aviation emissions (just over 2% of the total).
What can that slight descent be due to? According to the researcher, “the figures suggest that the activity of private aviation is more volatile than that of the commercial, perhaps because their profitable desire is lower: airlines have a strong incentive to optimize the number of trips that make their airplanes every year modifying prices; it is likely that private planes simply will be parked when demand lowers.” In addition, 2023 was the year in which conventional trade routes were fully recovered.
If they suppose such a low percentage, why should they worry? “It is better to analyze this from an equity perspective,” says Rutherford. “Climate damage falls mostly on the poorest, especially in the global south, while private aviation is used for discretionary trips of ultra -ups and, to a large extent, is not subject to tax.
The ICCT shows that in 2023 two thirds of world flights in private airplanes departed from US airports, which represents more than half (55%) of the estimated gei emissions of these airplanes. France and the United Kingdom were second and third place but at a lot of distance, with 2.2% and 2.1% of the flights, respectively. Only the states of Florida and Texas, in the US, generated more flights in private airplanes and emissions than the entire European Union.
Short private flights
The authors point out that these private airplanes are usually used for relatively short distance: half of the flights covered distances of less than 900 kilometers, while 75% were less than 1,500 kilometers. Flights of more than 3,000 are only 5%. The average flight time is 85 minutes (less than an hour and a half).
Therefore, from the ICCT they ask to replace these flights with high -speed trains on all possible paths, since train times are very competitive in short and half distances. In addition, they ask that governments harden the fuel efficiency requirements (CO₂) for new private planes and demand the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF, in English) for these flights ,.
In Europe, the gasoline that we put in cars pays taxes, but not the kerosene of the airplanes (neither commercial nor private). Therefore, the entity requires that taxes be imposed on private jets, which would help generate income for climatic financing “by addressing ultra -ups and less sensitive passengers, which would allow tax rates to reduce the difference between conventional and renewable fuel (SAF), still much more expensive, without affecting both commercial aviation”.
