30th October 2025
Private jets – 3
For climate activists there is also the issue of justice. The increasing use and ownership of private jets represents the growing gap between the wealthiest and the poorest. This gap is socially unjust but doubly so, because the richer you are the bigger your carbon footprint. And the bigger your carbon footprint the more the damage you cause to the environment, the greater the impacts of adverse weather events, pollution, food and water shortages on the poorest.
“If everyone used private jets and superyachts like 50 of the world’s richest billionaires, the remaining carbon budget to stay within 1.5C would be burned up in just two days” quotes Oxfam’s report, From Poverty to Power (2024). The report looked at data on the luxury transport consumption of 50 of the world’s richest people and found that their consumption emissions totalled more that the poorest 2% of the world’s population (155 million people).
Amongst its recommendations, Oxfam’s report included –
- Taxing the super-rich to curb their excessive consumption and investment emissions, and their role in propping up polluting industries.
- Banning or punitively taxing carbon-intensive luxury consumptions, starting with private jets, superyachts, sports utility vehicles (SUVs), and frequent air travel.
- Regulating corporations and investors to radically and fairly reduce their carbon emissions. (1)
There is also an issue for economists trying to address net zero. In a series produced by The Guardian, entitled The Great Carbon Divide, the economist Thomas Piketty says “Questions of social and economic class must be at the centre of our response to the climate crisis, to address the huge inequalities between the carbon footprints of the rich and poor and prevent a backlash against climate policies. Regulations will be needed to outlaw goods and services that have unnecessarily high greenhouse gas emissions, such as private jets, outsized vehicles, and flights over short distances.” (2)
(1) https://frompoverty.oxfam.org.uk/billionaire-pollutocrats-what-we-can-do/
The Green Tau 