The rich and famous are pressured to abandon their private jets to save the environment – Up Jobs News

From the American singer Taylor Swift even the french businessman Bernard Arnaultthe pressure mounts on celebrities, political figures and big businessmen what for limit their travel on private jetsresponsible for a significant carbon footprint.

After posting a photo of his plane and his partner on Instagram in mid-July, the star of reality showyes, Kylie Jenner was rated as “climate criminal” by netizens.

“Polluter and criminal”another tweeted about the director steven spielbergaccused of take a 28 minute flight.

Countless humorous memes, photos and videos circulated mocking Swift after the publication on Friday of an analysis by the marketing agency. yardthat classified her as “the most polluting celebrity of the year”with 170 flights since the beginning of the year.

The top 10 polluting celebrities were completed Floyd Mayweather, Jay-Z, Alex Rodriguez, Blake Shelton, Spielberg, Kim Kardashian, Mark Wahlberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Travis Scott.

Yard relied on data from the “Celebrity Jets” Twitter account, which tracks celebrity flights through public online data.

Jack Sweeney, a 19-year-old student, launched this account. It started in June 2020 following Elon Musk’s private jet and now he has 30 accounts tracking sports stars, the Meta boss, mark zuckerbergand even Russian oligarchs.

He inspired other Internet users such as Sebastián -a pseudonym to preserve his identity-, a 35-year-old aeronautical engineer who created the “I Fly Bernard” account in April, about the routes of the planes of French billionaires to pressure them regarding their carbon footprint. .

“What I am trying to denounce is the use of private planes as taxis,” he explains to the AFPpointing out the numerous national or European flights carried out.

“In Europe, three quarters of these flights could be made by train”denounces William Todts, executive director of Transport & Environment, which brings together European NGOs in the sector.

The airline sector is responsible for between 2% and 3% of global CO2 emissions but, according to a report by Transport & Environment, published in May, flights cause a carbon footprint per passenger between five and 14 times higher than flights commercial and 50 times higher than the train.

On the other hand, private aviation is booming since the pandemicsince their clients want to avoid the suppression of flights and promiscuity in the face of Covid-19.

Some stars reacted to the pressure on social networks. In the past week, a spokesperson for Swift told reporters that she “regularly lends her jet to other people.”.

“Attributing most or all of these flights to him is totally incorrect,” he details.

the rapper Drakeflagged for a 14-minute flight between Toronto and Hamilton, responded on Instagram that the plane had been moved to park elsewhere, “no one was on board,” he claimed.

“Even worse if it flew empty,” says Beatrice Jarrige, project manager for the Shift Project association, a thinktank French who advocates the change to a “post-carbon economy”.

In France, a spokesman for the industrial group Bouygues assures that the plane followed by “I Fly Bernard”, presented as that of its CEO, Martin Bouygues, belongs to the group and “is used by various collaborators”.

It also indicates that the aircraft’s CO2 emissions are offset by projects of reforestation, a solution criticized because it does not reduce emissions substantially.

Other French billionaires such as Bernard Arnault, Jean Charles Decaux and Vincent Bolloré, also affected by the Twitter account, did not want to comment.

Jarrige hopes this social media movement will turn into a political action.

“It is not about totally banning flights, but it is necessary that the richest make an effort to sober up”he specifies, advocating investments in the railway.

For Todts, jet owners should, at a minimum, require that they run on biofuels instead of kerosene, as this would encourage aircraft manufacturers to develop these technologies.

In September 2021, the business aviation sector considered these sustainable fuels to be “key” to achieving the carbon neutrality target set for 2050.

With information from AFP agency