More personal jets took off from the UK than another nation in Europe in 2022 – with one leaving each six minutes, in accordance with analysis commissioned by Greenpeace.
Last yr noticed a surge in personal jet use to 90,256 flights, inflicting half 1,000,000 tonnes of CO2.
The UK can declare essentially the most flights and essentially the most emissions in addition to the busiest and most carbon-intensive routes, the aviation consultants stated.
The route between London and Paris – for which there’s additionally the choice of travelling by rail, with Eurostar operating trains between 10 and 15 occasions a day – was the most well-liked, with 3,357 flights final yr.
The most polluting route was between Farnborough and Blackbushe airports in Hampshire – a distance of fewer than 5 miles which Google Maps says could be walked in simply over an hour-and-a-half.
Thirteen flights had been made on this route which produced 23 tonnes of CO2, equal to driving round 50,000 miles, the analysis discovered.
Researchers stated these flights had been more likely to have been made for positioning – when an plane is moved to a different airport to start its major flight.
There had been additionally 1,343 flights between Farnborough – which describes itself because the “business gateway to Europe and beyond”- and numerous London airports via 2022.
Dutch environmental consultants CE Delft carried out the analysis utilizing knowledge from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
They analysed personal jet site visitors throughout Europe in 2020, 2021 and 2022 and located there have been 1,041,640 flights in complete, inflicting 5,377,851 tonnes of CO2 – equal to your complete annual emissions of Leeds.
The evaluation additionally confirmed that after a drop in personal jet use in 2020 as a result of COVID pandemic, its reputation rose once more and exceeded 2019 ranges as soon as journey restrictions had been lifted.
Flights elevated nonetheless additional in 2022 from 350,078 to 572,806, with the related CO2 greater than doubling to over 3.3 million tonnes.
Greenpeace is looking for a ban on personal jets. The world environmental marketing campaign group stated 39% of the flights made throughout Europe final yr had been thought of “very short haul”, lower than 500km, and subsequently simply navigable by practice.
Doug Parr, coverage director at Greenpeace UK, stated: “Private jets are staggeringly polluting and generally pointless. Many of these journeys can be covered almost as quickly by train, and some of them by bicycle.
“Millions of individuals around the globe are dealing with local weather chaos, shedding livelihoods or worse, whereas a tiny minority are burning jet gasoline like there is not any tomorrow.”
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Max Thrower, of the Aviation Environment Federation, a group that campaigns on aviation’s environmental impacts, said: “Flying by personal jet is essentially the most carbon-intensive solution to journey and it is unacceptable that folks proceed to do it unnecessarily within the midst of a local weather emergency.
“The fact it continues suggests that the super-rich are laughing in the faces of normal people, who are becoming increasingly concerned about their carbon footprint from flying.”
He known as for a authorities crackdown via measures equivalent to an elevated tax on personal jets, which has been thought of lately in France, or by setting a deadline for personal planes to be zero emission or face a ban.
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A spokesperson from the Department for Transport stated: “We are committed to decarbonising aviation, and our jet zero strategy sets out how we can achieve net zero emissions from UK aviation by 2050, without directly limiting demand.
“The UK’s sustainable aviation fuels programme is among the most complete on this planet, and our £165m superior gasoline fund is kickstarting manufacturing. Meanwhile, our current reforms to the tax on air passengers will guarantee those that fly personal jets or fly the furthest contribute essentially the most to the general public purse.
“The UK is decarbonising faster than any other G7 country, and we remain committed to reaching net zero by 2050 while growing the economy and supporting hundreds of thousands of well-paid green jobs.”
Source: information.sky.com”