Billionaires obsessed with private jets Journalism

According to the daily Watchman200 billionaires and celebrities traveled by air for a period equivalent to 11 years since the beginning of 2022. These flights produced 415,518 tons of carbon dioxide.₂ Over the past 21 months, according to the British newspaper The Daily.

This total is equivalent to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 36,771 people in Quebec. The latest report from the Quebec Statistics Institute estimates annual greenhouse gas emissions at 11.3 tons per resident in the province.

List for guardian It features Elon Musk, the Murdoch family, Russian oligarchs and the Rolling Stones, as well as Montreal-born Aston Martin Formula 1 team owner Lawrence Stroll.

Among the five most polluting billionaires are the Blavatnik family, the Murdoch family, Eric Schmidt, the Sawiris family, and Lorenzo Fertitta, all of whose flights released at least 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide.₂ Up in the air.

Watchman The plane owned by Lawrence Stroll has reportedly made a total of 1,512 flights since the start of 2022. His private planes, including two helicopters, have also made the majority of the flights lasting 15 minutes or less.

Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world, is the main sponsor of the Aston Martin team, which was bought by Stroll in 2020. His son Lance drives one of the Formula 1 cars for the team led by former world champion Fernando Alonso. . Over the past year, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund also became the second-largest shareholder in manufacturer Aston Martin, he said Journalism in June.

“direct link”

according to WatchmanOne of the most polluting planes on this sad list belongs to the Rolling Stones. The Boeing 767 in which Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ron Wood flew released 5,046 tons of carbon dioxide₂ In 21 months, the equivalent of 1,763 flights for one person between London and New York in economy class. The famous group also plans to perform a number of shows in North America in 2024.

“It’s an example of what we already know. There’s a direct relationship between great wealth and carbon production,” says Alain Letourneau, a professor at the University of Sherbrooke, who specializes in particular in environmental ethical issues.

Patrick Bonin, head of the climate and energy campaign at Greenpeace Canada, believes that the report is… guardian Explains the “supreme privilege of the minority who use the worst way to get around.” “It is not surprising. He adds: “There is an upward trend in the use of private jets.”

According to Alain Letourneau, “Numbers [du Guardian] Absolutely unusual. We are in another world. This leads us to questions that we are not accustomed to, about justice and proportionality that must be taken into account according to the economic situation. He points out, “For example, a person who takes a plane to see his aunt in France cannot be put on an equal footing with a billionaire who takes his private plane 1,500 times.”

It should be noted that the British daily newspaper’s report comes 24 hours after the publication of a report by the non-governmental organization Oxfam stating that the richest 1% on the planet produce more greenhouse gases than 66% of the poor, or about 5 billion people. In 2019, the emissions of the richest people were also 27 times higher than the level needed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century.

Less than two weeks before the COP28 climate conference, which will be held in Dubai, a UN report also indicates that global warming is accelerating and may reach 2.9 degrees by the end of the century.

Greenhouse gas emissions from air transport represent less than 3% of global emissions, but have been increasing in recent years.

With Julien Arsenault Journalism

A previous version of this text indicated that there will be 5.3 million private aircraft in the world in 2022, but this is rather the number of flights made by private aircraft. However, analysts expect total private jet sales to reach $34.6 billion in 2023, up from the previous year.