Climate Change: Ban private jets

Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and within it, one of the fastest sources is elite travel: billionaires flitting around the world in their private jets, spewing excessive pollution into the atmosphere just so they can avoid mixing with us dirty peasants. But in the UK, the Labour party has a plan to deal with this source of unnecessary pollution, by banning private jets from UK airports:

Labour is exploring plans to ban private jets from UK airports from as early as 2025 should it win the election, in the party’s latest broadside against the super-rich.

After a report revealed carbon emissions from the sector equivalent to 450,000 cars each year, Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, said that billionaire users of private fossil fuel aircraft were damaging the climate and the party would consider a ban.

He tweeted on Monday: “The multi-millionaires & billionaires who travel by private jet are doing profound damage to the climate, and it’s the rest of us who’ll suffer the consequences. A phase-out date for the use of fossil fuel private jets is a sensible proposal.”

Sounds like a good idea. The average private jet journey emits ten times as much as flying economy class, and 150 times as much as using high speed rail. And it serves no useful purpose whatsoever. If billionaires want to keep doing this, then let them lead the investment in zero-emissions flight, and do something good for humanity for once.