By Carole Roberts, Researcher, Carbon Footprint of Transport, UCL; Mark Maslin, Professor of Pure Sciences, UCL; and Priti Parikh, Professor of Infrastructure Engineering and Worldwide Growth, UCL writing in The Dialog.
Rishi Sunak, David Cameron and King Charles are simply three of the greater than 70,000 delegates from almost 200 international locations on the newest UN local weather summit in Dubai, COP28. However they’re amongst lots of who could have travelled there by personal jet. In actual fact, the UK prime minister, international secretary and king even travelled in three separate planes.
At COP27 in Egypt final 12 months, round 315 personal jet journeys happened. That is a rare statistic, particularly as fewer world leaders attended that COP, as many had been busy at a G20 summit in Bali.
That’s why we arrange a group of educational consultants to estimate the carbon footprint of journey to this 12 months’s assembly, COP28 in Dubai, for various modes of transport together with personal jets. We in the end wish to empower attendees to make knowledgeable climate-conscious journey decisions.
We additionally in contrast the carbon footprints for the previous three COPs to assist see the place the conferences could possibly be positioned in an effort to dissuade attendees from utilizing personal jets, until completely important for safety. Using personal jets final 12 months – and presumably this 12 months too, although we don’t but have full information – suggests that is turning into the brand new norm and has moved past simply important world leaders.
Carbon footprint of transport modes
Flying is already probably the most carbon-intensive types of journey each on account of emissions from burning jet gasoline and since vapour trails assist create excessive altitude clouds which entice extra warmth within the ambiance. It’s additionally significantly onerous to decarbonise – there aren’t electrical planes we may merely use as a substitute.
Non-public jet journey is probably the most polluting mode of all, consuming numerous gasoline but carrying few passengers. French economist Thomas Piketty argues they’re an instance of sophistication inequality and have to be tackled if we’re to take care of local weather change.
Their use by high-profile individuals clearly undermines the purpose of a local weather convention and symbolises a disconnect between environmental issues and particular person actions and an absence of dedication to sustainable practices. This in flip dangers shaping and influencing public opinion. Earlier analysis suggests members of the general public take local weather motion much less significantly in the event that they really feel that their leaders should not doing their bit.
We began by taking a look at using personal jets for COP27 in Egypt (our outcomes can be found as a preprint forward of formal peer-review). Most personal flights had been short-haul, usually simply an hour between the capital Cairo and the convention venue in Sharm El-Sheikh. Over shorter distances, planes are even much less environment friendly as take off and touchdown burns extra gasoline in comparison with cruising.
So avoiding quick flights and personal jets is a should. With this in thoughts, we explored a spread of journey choices to get to COP28 in Dubai for contributors from the UK, the place we’re primarily based.
For a journey from London to Dubai, personal jet journey is 11 occasions extra polluting than a business plane, 35 occasions greater than prepare and 52 occasions greater than coach journey (even after factoring in a flight from Istanbul, since you’ll be able to’t go all the way in which to Dubai by prepare or coach). For these flying from the UK, the longer flight to Dubai in comparison with Egypt means emissions will likely be greater this 12 months.
Carbon depth (grams of CO₂equivalent) of transport from London to COP28:
Location of COP
Among the blame for flight emissions should lie with the UN physique which decides the place COP conferences will likely be held, the UNFCCC. Dubai is surrounded by battle zones, which block land routes from Europe, Asia and Africa and makes flying there important.
Whereas most delegates will wish to journey sustainability, their actions will rely on the accessibility of different types of journey akin to secure land routes and for these coming from additional away not less than the choice of direct flights to minimise their carbon emissions.
On this respect Dubai is an effective selection as it’s a main airline hub and so there are numerous direct flights and fewer want for second or inside flights.
Our evaluation highlights the necessity to contemplate very fastidiously the carbon footprint implications of journey to COP conferences. Finally policymakers might want to determine host places for local weather change conferences which may help to minimise the carbon footprint of the contributors.
Non-public jets are nonetheless not advisable, nevertheless. Their carbon footprint is considerably greater than different types of transport, they exacerbate current inequities at local weather negotiations and ship the improper message to the world.
