Kylie Jenner was slammed for luxury jet use— but she’s not the only one flying private amid climate crisis

Taking a private plane can cause up to 14 times more emissions per person as flying commercial

Kylie Jenner is getting criticism for her use of a private jet from people concerned about the climate crisis, but she’s not the only star making a large carbon footprint with her luxurious planes.

Last Friday, Ms Jenner posted an image on Instagram of herself and partner Travis Scott standing on an airport runway in between their private jets, with a caption that reads: “You wanna take mine or yours?”

Some fans praised the image, but other critics noted the likely carbon footprint of such private jet usage — or the seemingly paltry emissions reductions that come from things like avoiding plastic when compared to something like private flights.

Ms Jenner is far from alone in her private jet usage. Many celebrities, business leaders and other members of the wealthiest echelons take their own planes to travel around the world. In fact, private jet flights have been increasing in the past few years, according to Reuters.

And with all those flights, the greenhouse gas impact on the planet’s temperature could start to rack up.

A search of the Twitter account @CelebJets — which automatically tracks the comings and goings of some celebrity’s private planes — will find flights logged on Ms Jenner’s plane over the past two months to Palm Springs, California; Turks and Caicos; Long Island, New York; and France, among other destinations.

A representative for Ms Jenner declined to comment to The Independent.

Flying private has a seriously high carbon footprint — even more so than notoriously polluting commercial air travel. Private jets in Europe, for instance, emit between five and 14 times more pollution per passenger, claims a report from the non-profit European Federation for Transport and Environment.

Those private jets are also 50 times more polluting than train travel per passenger, the report claims.

In addition, one private plane can emit around two tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) — a major planet-warming greenhouse gas — in one hour, while the average EU resident emits the equivalent of 8.2 tonnes of (CO2) per year, the non-profit’s report claims.

In addition to Ms Jenner, @CelebJets shows that many A-listers are jumping on private planes for various jaunts. Recent tweets point out flights from country star Kenny Chesney, singer Taylor Swift, director Steven Spielberg, golfer Tiger Woods and actor Mark Wahlberg, among others.

It may not be surprising, then, that the wealthiest people in the world are generally responsible for more greenhouse gases per person than most other people.

Between 1990 and 2015, the wealthiest one per cent of all people on Earth (approximately 63 million in total) were responsible for 15 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions, claims a 2020 report from the non-profit Oxfam.

In comparison, the poorest 50 per cent of people (approximately 3.1 billion in total) emitted just 7 per cent of all emissions in that time span, the reports claims.

Worldwide, air travel makes up around 2.5 per cent of CO2 emissions, and emissions from the aviation sector have multiplied by a factor since 1966, per calculations at Our World in Data.

The consequences of the climate crisis have revealed themselves again this week, as intense heatwaves sweep over parts of Europe and the United States, leaving health concerns and wildfires in their wake.

Just this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading authority on climate science, said that greenhouse gas emissions need to start declining in the next three years if the world wants to stay limited to around 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.