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An earlier version of this article detailed the carbon emissions of a plane owned by rapper Jay-Z, based on analysis by British marketing agency Yard. A representative for Jay-Z said the plane is not owned by the artist. The article has been corrected. The article has also been redacted to make clear that The Post did not independently verify the ownership of the planes. The Yard’s analysis relies on a popular Twitter account that tracks celebrity jet movements based on public information.
Popular celebrities are no strangers to topping the charts. But a few big names recently found themselves on a new list: “Celebrities with the Worst Private Jet CO2 Emissions.”
The analysis of the flight data, which was published online on Friday by UK-based sustainability marketing agency Yard, comes on the heels of other celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Drake enduring strong public criticism after it was revealed that their private jets emitting emissions logged trips, 17 minutes and 14 minutes, respectively.
Using data from a popular Twitter account that tracks celebrity jet movements based on public information, the report found that celebrity-related jets emit an average of more than 3,376 metric tons of CO2 — roughly 480 times the annual emissions of the average person. The report, which was not peer-reviewed and included an important disclaimer about its analysis, included the names of a handful of celebrities, at least two of whom publicly disputed the list, saying the flight data associated with them did not reflect their actual usage .
Taylor Swift’s plane has been identified by the report as “the largest known polluter of CO2e this year so far,” having accumulated 170 flights since January with total emissions of more than 8,293 metric tons. A plane associated with boxer Floyd Mayweather is in second place, emitting about 7,076 metric tons of CO2, with one recorded trip lasting just 10 minutes.
Jay-Z, who could not be reached for comment, was third on the list. Following the publication, a lawyer for Jay-Z told the Washington Post that the rapper does not own the private jet in question; Rolling Stone reported that the flight data used in the analysis was from a plane associated with Puma and attributed to Jay-Z for his association with the brand.
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In a statement to The Post, a spokesperson for Swift said, “Taylor’s plane is regularly loaned out to other individuals. To attribute most or all of these trips to her is patently incorrect. Representatives for Mayweather did not respond to a request for comment.
While the analysis notes that its list is “not definitive” and there is “no way to determine whether these celebrities were on all recorded flights,” the authors stress that the purpose of the report is to “highlight the harmful impact of private jet use” — a reality that is extremely important for frequent flyers and the public to recognize, according to several experts who were not involved in studying the flight data. Many other people also often rely on private jets, including politicians, government officials, athletes, business executives and wealthy individuals.
“A private jet short hop requires getting a 10- to 20-ton plane into the air and then moving it from point A to point B,” said Peter DeCarlo, an associate professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University who studies air pollution. atmospheric air. “I know nobody likes to be stuck in traffic, but you don’t launch your car into the air. … The act of taking a huge piece of metal and launching it into the sky is going to be a huge carbon footprint that really isn’t necessary, especially for such short distances.”
And while DeCarlo and other experts acknowledged that a blanket ban on private jet travel, which can meet basic transportation needs in certain situations, isn’t the answer, they encouraged people — especially celebrities with significant social influence — to consider the environmental impact. of their choices and the message they might send.
“There are valid arguments that banning private jets probably won’t do what we need to get us going in the right direction on climate change, but that’s just really bad optics,” DeCarlo said. If people look to celebrities as role models, “they want to emulate that behavior. Then the private jet becomes a status symbol and something that people aspire to, and that’s not what we need right now in the climate context.
Counting environmental costs
A report published last year by Transport & Environment, a major European campaign group for clean transport, found that a single private jet can emit 2 metric tonnes of CO2 in just one hour. To put that into context, the average person in the EU produces around 8.2 tonnes of emissions over the course of a whole year, according to the report.
But while these planes are often widely criticized for their environmental impact, it’s important to think about their emissions compared to other forms of transportation, said Chris Field, director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.
Compared to economy commercial jets and climate-friendly cars such as hybrid or electric vehicles, emissions per passenger mile are significantly higher for private jets, which typically carry few passengers and travel shorter distances, Field said. But, he noted, the fuel economy of a private jet with a reasonable number of passengers can be comparable to that of a single person driving a Ford F-150 pickup truck.
“There’s a certain level of environmental irresponsibility in a person driving an F-150, and you can certainly say the same about traveling on a business jet,” he added.
Environmental concerns about private jets largely stem from how common they’ve become and how they’re used, for example, taking short trips or flying empty planes to more convenient runways, said Colin Murphy, deputy director of the Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and Economics at the University of California, Davis. Private jet users not only travel a lot, “but they do it in a generally less efficient way than if they were sitting in a coach seat in a 777 or in one of the conventional commercial jets.”
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Fast private jet travel highlights the “least efficient parts of the aircraft’s operating cycle,” Murphy said, noting that a huge amount of fuel is burned during the plane’s takeoff and altitude. “You’ve got all the emissions from taxiing, warming up the engines and taking off and climbing, not so much from cruising where you’re actually covering distance.”
Responding to criticism of the flights lasting less than 20 minutes, rapper Drake commented on Instagram, writing: “It’s just moving planes to whatever airport they’re stored at, for anyone who cares about the logistics… nobody not taking this flight “
But moving planes without passengers is another “really problematic use” of private jets, Murphy said.
“What you’re doing is you’re burning many hundreds or thousands of gallons of jet fuel to save a whole carload of people or a few carloads of people for a few hours,” he said. “Is this really the trade-off we want to say is acceptable in a world where climate change is no longer a future crisis but a present crisis?”
Comparing private with commercial
In general, smaller planes get worse fuel mileage than larger planes, according to experts. “A fully charged 737 has about the same emissions per passenger mile as an efficient car like a Prius,” Murphy said.
Although larger commercial jets require more fuel, they often carry many more people and all passengers on the flight share the total fuel cost of the trip, DeCarlo said. But keep in mind, Field said, that sitting in first or business class can often result in a higher carbon footprint than an economy seat.
One major advantage of private flying, however, is convenience.
“We live in a society where, among the very wealthy, convenience trumps everything else,” Field said, “and we would all benefit from keeping the emphasis on convenience in perspective.”
Getting rid of private jets is not the answer to our climate problem, experts said. While emissions per person from private travel are large, they are still not as significant as what is produced by the much larger commercial aviation industry, DeCarlo said.
What’s more, there are situations where this type of air travel is necessary, such as during medical emergencies or transporting organ donations, Field says. “Sometimes it’s really critical to get the right team to the right place at the right time, and that’s what business jets can do.”
Instead of banning private jets, experts said it may be more effective to explore regulations or policies aimed at reducing the amount of unnecessary travel.
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“You can imagine political levers that force this to be avoided, you can imagine economic levers that would just make it so expensive that it’s not worth it, or the kind of regulatory things that make it such a hassle,” Field said. “I support anything that is effective at reducing truly frivolous travel without eliminating travel that really matters.”
There’s probably no point in “demonizing business jets,” Field said. Rather, he said, people need to take responsibility for their actions and consider the environmental footprint of what they do when making decisions.
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