At the most recent UN climate summit in Dubai, COP28, more than 70 000 members from nearly 200 nations include Raji Sunak, David Cameron, and King Charles. However, they are just a few of the thousands who will have flown that on their own. The British monarch, foreign secretary, and prime minister actually took three different planes to their destinations.
Around 315 private jet flights were made at COP27 in Egypt last season. This is a remarkable data, especially given that fewer earth leaders attended the COP because some were preoccupied with Bali’s G20 summit.
To calculate the carbon footprints of traveling to this year’s meeting, COP28 in Dubai, for various modes of transportation, including private jets, we assembled a group of scientific experts. In the end, we want to give participants the tools they need to choose climate-conscious go.
In order to discourage participants from using private jet unless absolutely necessary for safety, we furthermore compared the carbon footprints of the previous three Officers to help determine where the conferences might be held.
Although we do n’t yet have complete data, the use of private jets last year—and probably this year as well—indicates that this is becoming the new norm and has progressed beyond just the most important world leaders.
carbon footprints of various modes of transportation
According to pollution from burning jet energy and because mist routes help produce high-altitude clouds that trap more heat in the atmosphere, flying is already one of the most carbon-intensive modes of transportation. Additionally, decarbonization is particularly challenging because we cannot just use electric planes in their place.
Personal jet travel is the most damaging function of all because it uses a lot of fuel while transporting some people. According to French scholar Thomas Piketty, if we are to combat climate change, we must address them because they serve as an illustration of school inequality.
Their usage by well-known individuals blatantly undermines the purpose of a climate conference and exemplifies the lack of commitment to sustainable practices as well as the disconnect between economic concerns and individual behavior.
This runs the risk of forming and influencing public opinion. According to earlier studies, people are less likely to get climate action seriously if they believe their leaders are failing to contribute.
Prior to the formal peer review, we looked at the use of private jets for the COP27 in Egypt ( our findings are available as a preprint ). The majority of private flights were short-haul, frequently lasting only an hour between the capital city of Cairo and the seminar location in Sharm El-Sheikh. As takeoff and landing consume more energy than cruising, planes are even less effective over shorter distances.
Therefore, avoiding small airlines and private aircraft is essential. In light of this, we looked into a variety of vacation choices for individuals from the UK, where we are based, to travel to COP28 in Dubai.
Even after taking into account a flight from Istanbul because you ca n’t travel the entire distance to Dubai by train or coach, private jet travel pollutes the area 11 times more than commercial aircraft, 35 times worse than train, and 52 times the amount of coach travel. For those traveling from the UK, this year’s pollutants may be higher due to the longer trip to Dubai than Egypt.
Transport from London to COP28 carbon intensity ( grams of CO2equivalent ):
The UNFCCC, the UN system that chooses where Criminal meetings will take place, may bear some of the blame for flight emissions. Conflict zones surround Dubai, making flying that necessary because they obstruct area pathways from Europe, Asia, and Africa.
While the majority of delegates will want to travel sustainably, their choices will depend on the availability of other modes of transportation, such as healthy land routes, and, for those traveling farther away, at the very least, the ability to fly directly to reduce their carbon emissions.
In this regard, Dubai is a wise choice because it has many direct flights and there is less need for following or internal flights due to its proximity to major airline hubs.
Our study emphasizes the necessity of properly weighing the effects of traveling to COP meetings on the carbon footprint. In the end, decision-makers may need to choose the spots of climate change conferences that will help reduce the carbon footprint of the attendees.
But, personal aircraft are still not advised. They have a much larger carbon footprint than other modes of transportation, worsen current weather agreements inequalities, and mislead the earth.
Professor Priti Parikh is Professor of Infrastructure Engineering and International Development at UCL, Carole Roberts is Researcher at Carbon Footprint of Transport, Mark Maslin teaches Natural Sciences there, and Prof.
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