Hundreds of private planes are flooding into Scotland, bringing attendees to an international climate change summit.
“Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ £48million Gulf Stream has led a 400-strong parade of private jets into COP25 including Prince Albert of Monaco, scores of royals and dozens of ‘green’ CEOs — as an extraordinary traffic jam forced empty planes to fly 30 miles to find space to park,” the Daily Mail reported. “Some environmental activists at the COP26 climate conference will be urging others to cut down on air travel and eat less meat, but apparently it is fine for billionaires to fly in on their own planes on routes already served by commercial airlines.”
The Mail said at least 52 private jets were seen landing at Glasgow airport on Sunday, “while estimates put the total number flying in for the conference at 400. Conservative predictions suggest the fleet of private jets arriving for COP26 will blast out 13,000tonnes of carbon dioxide in total – equivalent to the amount consumed by more than 1,600 Britons in a year.”
Prince Charles, who has strongly advocated action on climate change, was among those flying in on a private jet.
President Joe Biden is attending the summit after a trip to Rome for the G20 meeting. The Mail said he and his staff are estimated to generate 2.2 million pounds of carbon during his trip to Europe.
“The gigantic carbon footprint is comprised of 2.16 million pounds of carbon dioxide generated by the four large planes that comprise his airborne entourage on the trip to Italy and Scotland, where the president will speak at the COP26 summit on change in Glasgow, with the remainder emitted by Biden’s cars,” the Mail said. “His fleet is comprised of the heavily modified Boeing 747 he travels on, known as Air Force One when the president is on board, an identical decoy, and two huge C-17 Globemaster planes to carry his battalion of cars and helicopters.”
Biden also rode in a massive motorcade when he traveled to the Vatican for his meeting with Pope Francis on Friday. “The motorcade was 85-cars long, due to Italian COVID-19 rules, which only allow three non-cohabiting people – including the driver – per vehicle. As well as the Beast, it was comprised of gas-guzzling Chevrolet Suburban SUVs, and famously thirsty Alfa Romeo cars driven by Italian police. It would have generated around 73.5 pounds of carbon per mile driven,” the outlet reported.
The president traveled to Scotland with a huge entourage for the United Nations Climate Change conference. Among the attendees are a third of his Cabinet, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, USAID Administrator Samantha Power, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Eric Lander, and EPA Administrator Michael Regan.