A recent study conducted by Dutch environmental think tank CE Delft showed that one out of three private flights from Schiphol or Rotterdam The Hague airport were used for trips shorter than 500 kilometers, which has led environmental group Greenpeace to raise the alarm on polluting flights by luxury jets that have skyrocketed, pointing to a recent study showing emissions equivalent to almost 40,000 cars per year.
“We are shocked that in times of a climate crisis a certain group has started flying not less but more in private jets that are the most polluting,” said Dewi Zloch, a climate and energy expert at Greenpeace Netherlands.
Greenpeace pointed out that private flights did not fall under climate targets set out by the Dutch government and did not fall under a maximum of 440,000 flights a year set for 2023.
“This exception for private jets shows exactly what is wrong with the aviation industry,” added Zloch, calling for it to “stop polluting and finally have climate targets.”
“The first step is to scrap short flights and luxury private jets for the wealthy,” he stressed.
They shared no data on the rest of the world, but the case should be similar in the Philippines, where the rich and powerful who dictate government policy and should be taking the lead in climate action are most likely the ones routinely using luxury private jets to get around. This scenario isn’t difficult to imagine with the Philippine government having even acquired a Gulfstream G280 business jet, ostensibly for “command and control”, but has been found to be jetting all over the country and oftentimes of Singapore, at the expense of the taxpayer and the environment.
If the Dutch government can allow aviation industry loopholes for luxury private jets and their users to continue wreaking their elitist brand of havoc on the environment for their convenience, the situation must be worse in the Philippines. The only question at this point is if anyone can do anything about this problem that has been pointed out by Greenpeace.*
