Private aircraft at COP31 emit more carbon than 10,000 people

Ma hundred private aircraft landed in the first week of COP31 in Antalia, where the climate summit takes place, emitting more carbon dioxide than 10,000 people in the same period.

“There are many rich people coming to this summit, there are multimillionaires and there are many lobbyists of fossil fuels,” said Mariana Paoli, from the international organization Oxfam, to the Spanish agency EFE.

“In fact, they were one of the largest delegations,” explained the non-governmental organisation (NGO) expert founded in the United Kingdom in 1942 and with international headquarters in Kenya.

The NGO created the Polluterjets portal. With all private jets arriving in Antalya in southern Turkey during the two weeks of the summit.

The origin and flight data provide an estimate of the volume of carbon dioxide emitted on these routes.

A plane from Germany, Switzerland or Spain emits approximately 10 tonnes of carbon in two hours of flight, equivalent to the issuance of an average citizen of the planet for two years.

“ This is the hypocrisy of the multimillionaires: to arrive in a private plane, something that drives the carbon disaster and that stops the purpose of the summit, rather than helping it,” Paoli said.

The registration includes all aircraft landing in Antalia, without it being possible to determine whether passengers are actually going to COP31, whether the destination is super-luxury hotels on the coast or whether it is even a medical flight.

However, given that the average of 2025 is nine private aircraft per week, it is legitimate to assume that the overwhelming majority of 128 landings during the first week of COP31 belong to summit participants.

On Tuesday, the day of the arrival of the majority of Heads of Government, there were 31 landings, descending to 28 the next day, while on Thursday the figure fell to 19 and on Friday to 14.

The carbon emitted by these 128 recorded flights reaches 1,000 tons, equivalent to the contribution of 10,000 people during this period, wrote EFE in a piece signed by journalist Ilya U. Topper.

According to Oxfam, this figure already represents twice the 66 flights registered in the 17 days of COP30 in Belém (Brazil), last year, which issued a total of 678 tons of CO2.

Paoli admitted that for an international summit such as COP it is necessary to fly, but said that the difference between doing so on a regular flight or on a private jet is abysmal.

“ This is one of the few spaces in which we have an egalitarian representation between the North and the Global South, one of the few in which we can really drive goals of climate justice and responsibility: those who pollute most should pay for it,” he said.

“We are not only talking about rich countries, but also about rich individuals, who are behind many of the disasters we are experiencing,” he insisted.

The activist proposed a solution to impose a special tax on private aircraft.

“Imposing a tax on private jets would be an important way to make polluters pay. And there is no need to wait for an international agreement for this: any government can start doing so at its national level,” he said.

The measure should integrate a larger tax system on the concentration of wealth, aimed mainly at large oil companies.

The profits of large oil companies exceeded $100,000 (EUR 90.7 billion to the current exchange rate) only in the third quarter of this year, EFE added.

The 31st United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP31) began on Monday and runs until 20 November, with the mission of accelerating emissions reduction and financing the adaptation of developing countries.