How Flying Worsens The Climate Crisis

Whether you are taking a short city break, a transatlantic trip of a lifetime or a cheap package holiday in the sun, you are part of that 11%. You are, by default, in the wealthy minority of this planet.

The mere fact that you fly at all puts you in an exclusive and high-carbon club compared to the majority of people on Earth.

Analysis by The Guardian in 2019 found that taking one return flight from Dublin to New York La Guardia produces 830kg of CO2 per person.

That’s so much CO2 that there are 53 countries where the average person produces less CO2 in a year than that return flight alone.

The most common destinations from Irish airports are also most likely to be short-haul flights that can be reached by ferry – with the most popular routes being London (80 minutes, 113kg CO2), Manchester (60 minutes, 97kg CO2), Birmingham (65 minutes, 106kg CO2), Paris (105 minutes, 242kg CO2) and New York (7 hours 30 minutes, 830kg CO2).   

It is inescapable that the choice to fly is worsening the Climate Crisis – and no amount of promises about low-carbon plane fuels or drag-resistant designs will change that.

This is not helped by airline companies heavily promoting greenwashing – assuaging their customer’s guilt by making them pay more for their ticket to ‘offset’ their emissions.

Of course, as we’ve highlighted many times, offsetting doesn’t do anything if emissions aren’t cut in the first place – this is really just companies profiting from your good intentions.

In fact, market research company Research and Markets has predicted a 50% growth in private jet sales between 2020 and 2030.

This is particularly alarming when you consider that private jets are up to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes per passenger, and up to 50 times more polluting than taking a train.

This increase in sales and use has led to private jet emissions increasing faster than commercial emissions.

While we might think that private jets are the reserve of Hollywood A-listers, in reality Ireland ranks among the nations with the highest use of private jets in the world.

Transport & Environment reported in 2021 that Ireland ranked as the 10th highest European nation for CO2 emissions from private flights – with 50,560 tonnes of CO2 produced.

People like JP McManus, who is worth €2.1bn but failed to pay income tax or capital gains tax for the last 20 years, would be likely culprits for such high emissions, given prior media coverage on his private jet usage.

This is entirely at odds with maintaining a liveable planet – and neither the emissions from average Irish people, nor the ultra-wealthy can continue if we are to avert mass extinction this century.

In fact, of the 41 articles run so far in 2022 about Ryanair on RTE, 38 failed to contain a single mention of ‘emissions’ or ‘climate’. And one of the three stories that did contained uncorrected greenwashing from the airline.

Then there’s the Irish media’s fetishisation of private jet use by celebrities.

In January 2022, RTE lauded the fact that John Travolta had flown his own private jet to Shannon. It took us less than a minute to look up that this likely created up to 16,100kg of CO2 emissions per person – but again RTE couldn’t be bothered to report on the Climate Crisis implications.

Even this week the Galway Beo delighted in regaling its readers about Conor McGregor flying his family to Ibiza from Knock Airport on a private flight, without a single mention of the ecological and emissions consequences of his actions.

Until the Irish press uphold their responsibility to transparently, accurately and consistently report on the breadth and severity of the Climate Crisis, they are failing to educate their readers about just how bad flying is.

And as a result more people will continue to make the choice to fly.

In fact, the tax excise exemption on jet kerosene in resulted in the revenue forgoing €234 million in income in 2020 alone.

The answer is that fast travel comes at a climate cost. We need subsidies to make ferries and trains more affordable, so that more people are encouraged to visit the UK or the European continent by lower emission means.

Slow travel is not only less carbon intense, but it can be considerably more enjoyable, more scenic and can even get you to your destination faster – as trains drop you right into the city centre, while flights require extensive security checks and leave you on the outskirts of the place you’re going to.

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