100 climate activists block private jets at biggest business aviation…
In Geneva, 100 climate activists supporting Greenpeace, Stay Grounded, Extinction Rebellion, Scientist Rebellion and other climate movement groups from 17 countries have disrupted Europe’s biggest private jet sales fair, the annual European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE), demanding a ban on private jets. The action follows a series of protests against private jets, including at Amsterdam Schiphol airport and actions as part of the Make Them Pay campaign, in the past months. Activists chained themselves to aircraft gangways and the exhibition entrance in order to keep prospective buyers from entering. The protestors stuck giant tobacco-style health warning labels on the jets marking them as toxic objects and warning that ‘private jets burn our future’, ‘kill our planet’, and ‘fuel inequality’. Sales of private jets are expected to reach their highest ever level this year, and the global fleet of private jets has more than doubled in the last 20 years. Private flights produce about 10 times the CO2 of a commercial flight per passenger kilometre. This sort of CO2 emissions are inequitable, and unjustified environmental damage by the very rich. .Tweet Climate activists disrupt Europe’s biggest private jet fair Protesters from Greenpeace, Stay Grounded, Extinction Rebellion and others chain themselves to aircraft in Geneva By Rupert Neate Wealth correspondent @RupertNeate (Guardian) Tue 23 May 2023 Dozens of climate activists have disrupted Europe’s largest private jet trade fair by chaining themselves to aircraft to protest against the sector’s carbon emissions. The demonstrators on behalf of Greenpeace, Stay Grounded, Extinction Rebellion and Scientist Rebellion also attached themselves to the entrance gates of the event at Geneva airport in the hope of preventing prospective buyers from entering the annual show. The activists, who were calling for a global ban on the use of private jets because of their carbon footprint, stuck tobacco-style health warning labels on some of the jets at the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) saying private jets “burn our future”, “kill our planet”, and “fuel inequality”. Mira Kapfinger, a campaigner from Stay Grounded, a network uniting more than 200 climate crisis campaign groups across the world, said: “While many can’t afford food or rent any more, the super-rich wreck our planet, unless we put an end to it. “Apart from banning private jets, it’s also time to end air miles schemes which reward frequent flying, and instead tax frequent flyers. We need fair climate solutions.” Klara Maria Schenk, a transport campaigner for Greenpeace, said: “For over 20 years, Europe’s super-rich have popped champagne behind closed doors at EBACE while shopping for the latest toxic private jets. “Sales of private jets are skyrocketing, and with them the 1%’s hugely unfair contribution to the climate crisis – while the most vulnerable people deal with the damage. It is high time for politicians to put a stop to this unjust and excessive pollution and ban private jets.” Sales of private jets are expected to reach their highest ever level this year, according to a report by the US Institute for Policy Studies thinktank and Patriotic Millionaires, a group of super-rich people calling for higher taxes on the wealthiest in society. The global fleet of private jets has more than doubled in the past two decades, and there were 5.3m private flights last year – more than ever before, according to the report. Although private jet travel makes up only 4% of the global aviation market, it produces about 10 times as much greenhouse gas for each passenger. Climate emissions from private aviation have increased by nearly a quarter since the pandemic, when flying of all types nearly ceased in many countries for an extended period. The Patriotic Millionaires group is calling for a 10% tax on all purchases of secondhand private jets, and a 5% tax on new aircraft. This would have raised $2.6bn in t
