The Conference of Parties has the lofty task to ensure we survive the climate crisis, but it's criticized for not doing enough.
The latest backlash relates to world leaders who acted in opposition to the steps they're supposed to be taking to protect citizens around the globe by traveling to COP29 in private jets, Euronews reported. Sixty-five private planes landed in Baku the week leading up to the conference; 45 arrived the day before or day it began. In the same week in 2023, 32 private jets landed in the capital.
The November conference in Azerbaijan was the third consecutive meeting in a petrostate of the COP to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
"For CEOs who claim to care about tackling the climate crisis, using a private jet to get to COP shows blatant hypocrisy," Alethea Warrington, head of energy, aviation, and heat at Possible, which works toward a zero-carbon United Kingdom, told The Times.
"Traveling by private jet is a horrendous waste of the world's scarce remaining carbon budget, with each journey producing more emissions in a few hours than the average person around the world emits in an entire year."
Usually, outrage about private jet travel is reserved for the ultrawealthy, who disproportionately pollute the environment. Superyachts and even billionaires' investments are even worse, but regular people are the only ones who suffer.
What's incredible is that COP28 in the United Arab Emirates was orders of magnitude worse, with 644 private jet flights landing in Dubai. Baku hosted 67,000 attendees, far fewer than the 83,000 who met in the UAE, but 1,700 Big Oil lobbyists were there, Euronews reported.
The latest summit did end with a $300 billion commitment to support poorer nations in their efforts to adapt to the changing climate, though it was derided for being "woefully insufficient," as Reuters put it. COP29 was marred by scandal, too, as a host official worked to make oil deals with an undercover operative, among other problems.
It may not always be feasible to take low-carbon transportation such as high-speed rail, especially to far-flung locales, but it can be done if it's important, as U.K. climate action group Carbon Jacked proved.
They said it was impossible… but we made it to Azerbaijan for #COP29 without flying… 🇦🇿🌍⚡️ pic.twitter.com/RDxHuDCUnM
— CarbonJacked (@CarbonJacked) November 10, 2024
If commercial flights are a security risk for world leaders, maybe the answer is for them to change their actions rather than their mode of travel.
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