Taylor Swift and the High Carbon Cost of Private Jets

What do you think popular stars like Taylor Swift do at the end of their show? Well, they go back to their homes, just like the rest of us. While we may travel in our cars or use public transit and ride shares, they use their private jets to get home.

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Taylor Swift’s jets (yes, she has 2 of them) have spent over 166 hours in the skies during her colossal Eras tour in the U.S. as of September 2023.

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In 2022, Taylor Swift’s planes emitted over 8,293 metric tons of CO₂e. This emission is nearly 1,200 times the total yearly emissions of an average person. You would have to live for 536 years to emit that amount of CO₂e in your life.

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Other celebrities also have a high carbon 'flight' print. In 2022, Kylie Jenner's 17-minute flight from Van Nuys to Camarillo, California went viral. The cities are just 40 miles apart. Elon Musk's private jet activity last year revealed that he took a total of 171 flights, resulting in 2,112 tons of CO₂e emissions. This amount is 132 times higher than the average American's carbon footprint.

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How bad are private jets as compared to commercial planes?

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According to the High Flyers 2023 study, private jets are estimated to be 5 to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes on a per-passenger basis. They emit at least 10 times more pollutants than commercial planes per passenger.

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For a flight between New York City and Washington DC, the study calculated that private aircraft emitted an estimated 7,913 lbs of CO₂e per passenger, while commercial planes emitted an estimated 174 lbs of emissions. Traveling by train emits 7 lbs, and by bus emits 88 lbs.

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The study also mentioned that flying privately leads to approximately 45 times as many emissions as a traveler flying commercially on the same route and more than 1,100 times the emissions of a person on a train.

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We are not saying that celebrities should not travel at all, but there should be stricter regulations around private jets.

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Some countries in Europe tried to ban private jets

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In June 2023, a coalition of European nations led by Austria, France, and the Netherlands actively urged the EU Transport Commission to impose a ban on private jets. Unfortunately, the commission ruled out the ban.

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The Netherlands actively found another way to reduce emissions by implementing a ban on private jet flights at certain times of the day at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport from 2025. France, which had recently banned a lot of short-haul flights in the country, is actively looking to make private jet travel less lucrative through heavy taxation and restrictions.

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We understand that everyone loves to sleep in their bed at night, but that should not mean that the top 1% of people on this planet continue to emit massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere while the rest of us are actively striving to live a more sustainable lifestyle.