At a time when citizens are increasingly aware of the ecological impact of means of transport, some celebrities do not hesitate to borrow their private jet, even for short trips. Enough to fuel the CO2 emissions produced by the aviation sector, responsible for 2% of CO2 emissions worldwide (according to the IPCC, this proportion could reach 3% in 2050). Last year, Dr Debbie Hopkins, an expert in transport decarbonisation at the University of Oxford, explained to the BBC that “a huge amount of fuel is used when an aircraft takes off and lands , regardless of the number of people on board. So an already polluting mode of transport (commercial aviation) becomes even worse (with private jets).” In other words, a star who travels alone on a private jet on a regular basis has more impact than someone who takes a commercial flight full of passengers. A few days ago, a publication by Kylie Jenner on Instagram featuring her private jet also launched a controversy on this subject.
On Twitter, an algorithm created by Jack Sweeney, an American student at the University of Central Florida, tracks the private jet journeys of stars, then publishes the image data under the CelebJets account. Something to give you an idea, even if it does not cover all the private jet journeys in the world. Based on this data, the British agency Yard published a study on July 29, 2022, with a top 10 of the stars whose journeys emit the most CO2. Its figures reveal that “the average amount of CO2 produced by our celebrities – from their private jets alone – in 2022 so far is 3,376.64 tonnes each”, or “482.37 times more than the annual emissions of a average person”. All this for an average flight duration of just over an hour, and an average of 66.92 miles traveled per flight (about 107 km, slightly more than the distance by car between Paris and Beauvais).
According to the study, the first culprit would be none other than the singer Taylor Swift, with 8,293.54 tonnes of CO2 released this year. His private jet has logged 170 flights since January 2022, with an average flight time of 80 minutes and an average of 139.36 miles (224 km). The top 10 also includes boxer Floyd Mayweather (one of whose flights lasted 10 minutes), rapper Jay-Z, director Steven Spielberg (who, for example, took an 18-minute flight between Amsterdam and Rotterdam), the wife of Kim Kardashian, TV host Oprah Winfrey, and rapper Travis Scott. The latter is none other than the companion of Kylie Jenner who, she comes 19th in the ranking.