The shopping trip to London, Milan or New York is also possible in times of… climate change partly viewed as a quasi-human right. This is not only used by low-cost airlines.
Particularly rich people often take extreme care of you CO2-intensive lifestyle as studies show. In a new study, researchers have examined how large the greenhouse gas emissions are from jetting with private aircraft. Result: The Output goes cheerful up also in Austria.
As part of the study presented in the specialist magazine “Communications Earth & Environment”, the team led by Stefan Gössling from Linnaeus University in Kalmar (Sweden) analyzed transponder data from private aircraft worldwide, which is available on the web platform “ADS-B Exchange”. More than 18 million flights with 26,000 private aircraft between 2019 and 2023 were taken into account.
Over 15 million tons of CO2 emissions
The scientists focused on flight data from types of jets that are typically used to transport very few people or by individuals, but excluded real small aircraft. According to the evaluation in the publication Austria point Private aircraft density im front field: With 2,94 such aircraft per 100,000 inhabitants is clearly present Deutschland (0,75)just behind the one that is known to be very popular with the super-rich Switzerland (3.76) or a little bit behind them USA (5,45)which are home to almost 69 percent of all private jets. Little Austria at least has one One percent share.
This data was linked to the average fuel consumption of 72 relevant aircraft types. When evaluating the data, it should be taken into account that CO2 emissions only account for a third of the climate effect of flying – alongside factors such as contrails and nitrogen oxide and water vapor emissions.
Overall, the evaluation suggests that in the study period CO2 emissions from private flights increased by almost half is – the direct emissions have increased from 2019 to 2023 46 percent increased, from 10.7 to 15.6 million tons of CO2. Please note: During this period, normal scheduled flight traffic came to an almost complete standstill at times due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.
“Many flights are highly avoidable”
Based on the study’s methodology, the German Science Media Center (SMC) determined how high the emissions were in German-speaking countries: they came to a total of around 0.05 megatons for such Flights from Austriaauf about 0,22 megatons in terms of Deutschland and round 0,17 Megatons at the Switzerland. If you look at the development of private flight traffic over the years, you can only see a slight downward trend from 2019 to 2020 in the DACH region. The following year, emissions were back to around pre-Corona levels and in 2022 and 2023 they were already higher. Emissions from private jets increased massively, especially in Switzerland. For study lead author Gössling, the SMC’s additional evaluations for Austria, Germany and Switzerland are understandable and correspond to the methodology in the publication, as he explained to the APA.
Looking at the Corona years, we can see worldwide that “in principle, private air travel has never stopped, but is through the pandemic even still become more attractive“, said the scientist. Meanwhile, in recent years, “many rich people have become even richer,” which in turn may have contributed to making private air travel even more attractive. For comparison: only 0.003 percent of the world population to use according to the information Private planesbut their CO2 emissions are now responsible for around 1.8 percent of commercial aviation emissions.
Many this Flights be supreme avoidablethe researchers argue: “In many cases, private aviation seems to replace the car for reasons of time or convenience, as the 4.7 percent share of very short flights of less than 50 kilometers shows,” says Gössling’s team also took a closer look at some events with a pull on the super-rich.
Large events attract private jets
The number of private aircraft was particularly high around major sporting, cultural or political events. And there are interesting patterns: of the 766 private aircraft that were associated with the Cannes Film Festival (France), 172 were also registered with World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland). Of the 409 private machines at the Men’s World Cup 2022 in Qatar were also there in 66 “Super Bowl” 2023 in the USA and 96 at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai to find.
“Regulations are necessary to take the growing climate impact of the sector into account,” is the conclusion of Gössling’s team. “The rich exist outside of any climate morality, at least that’s what the emissions statistics suggest,” he told the APA. As in many areas of society, the following also applies to very wealthy people: “You don’t reduce your emissions voluntarily. We therefore need a policy that creates the appropriate framework conditions. If regulation is regulated at the very top, then climate policy will also be much more acceptable to ordinary citizens. That But the reverse also applies: If the rich can emit as much as they want, then there will be resistance to climate policy among citizens who emit much less.”