The ultra-rich are increasingly using private jets for short-term flights, racking up global emissions from a tiny fraction of the population

(Credit: Mark Edward Atkinson/Tracey Lee—Getty Images)

The wealthy have so taken to jet-setting that they’re flying private for business, leisure, and on the weekends. And more is to come, according to a study recently published by Communications Earth & Environment. The burgeoning private-aircraft industry is expecting 8,500 new corporate jets to be delivered over the next decade. 

It’s a trend that brings with it an increasingly catastrophic global toll. Private-jet travel accounted for 15.6 million metric tons of CO2 in direct emissions in 2023, or about 3.6 metric tons of CO2 per flight, the study found. That’s nearly the equivalent of the total yearly emissions produced by one average person—all in a single private-jet flight, the study revealed.