What's the climate impact of private jets at COP27?

There has been disapproval connected societal media of delegates arriving astatine the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference, successful Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

The time earlier the league began, hundreds of biology activists stopped backstage jets leaving Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, by sitting successful beforehand of their wheels and riding astir the airfield connected bicycles.

Data from FlightRadar24 shows 36 backstage jets landed astatine Sharm el-Sheikh betwixt 4 and 6 November, the commencement of the summit.

A further 64 flew into Cairo, 24 of which had travel from Sharm el-Sheikh.

The COP27 website says delegates should usage either airport.

Nine of the flights came from the United Kingdom, with others from European countries including Italy, France, and the Netherlands.

Two were from the US to Cairo - 1 from Atlanta and 1 from Washington DC.

FlightRadar24 says determination whitethorn person been much scheduled backstage flights it was incapable to way due to the fact that of constricted sum successful the area.

One of the reasons for this whitethorn beryllium determination person been less satellite leaders, truthful far, attending the Sharm el-Sheikh summit.

Flights nutrient greenhouse gases - chiefly c dioxide (CO2) - from burning fuel. These lend to planetary warming.

Emissions per kilometre travelled are importantly worse than immoderate different signifier of transport.

This varies considerably depending on:

But backstage jets mostly nutrient importantly much emissions per rider than commercialized flights.

There are galore antithetic models of backstage pitchy but the 1 flown the astir often into Egypt up of Cop27 was the Gulfstream G650, which uses astir 500 gallons (1,893 litres) of substance per hour.

If a backstage pitchy had managed to instrumentality disconnected from Amsterdam - contempt the demonstrations - it should person taken astir 5 hours to scope Sharm el-Sheikh, utilizing astir 9,465 litres of aviation fuel.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) says 2.5kg (5.5lb) of CO2 is emitted for each litre of aviation turbine substance burned. So this formation would nutrient 23.9 tonnes.

But to "capture the maximum clime impact" of flights, BEIS recommends, CO2 emissions figures should beryllium multiplied by 1.9 - to bespeak the non-CO2 emissions released by planes astatine precocious altitude, which, scientists say, summation the warming effect.

Therefore, the full emissions for this formation would beryllium 45.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent - and with a capableness of 15, each rider would beryllium liable for astir 3 tonnes connected their journey.

These emissions figures are estimates for the existent journeys - they bash not see the emissions associated with making the backstage jets successful the archetypal place.

If our COP27 delegates had opted for a commercialized formation from Amsterdam to Egypt, assuming they travelled premium class, their emissions would person been astir fractional a tonne each, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) calculator.

Even though a commercialized formation uses much substance per hour, it tin alert acold much passengers than a backstage pitchy and truthful produces less emissions per person.

The UK premier curate and overseas caput arrived successful an adapted RAF Voyager craft that is simply a mentation of the Airbus A330-MRTT.

Airbus told BBC News a modular formation would usage betwixt 5 and 5.5 tonnes of aviation substance an hour, depending connected factors specified arsenic the magnitude of cargo and the altitude.

Using the government's conversion factors, that means the formation to Sharm el-Sheikh volition person emitted betwixt 79 and 87 tonnes of CO2. Using the BEIS multiplier takes that to 150 to 165 tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

BBC News asked Downing Street however galore different passengers were connected the formation to Sharm el-Sheikh but No 10 would not say.

A authorities spokesperson said: "This delegation travelled connected 1 of the astir carbon-efficient planes of its size successful the satellite and c emissions from these flights are besides offset."

The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit's planetary pb told BBC News that focusing connected satellite leaders taking backstage jets to COP27 was "missing the point".

"The emissions are negligible compared to the interaction of decisions and commitments made astatine these summits," helium said.

"If you privation emissions to travel down, you privation leaders successful the country and media, scientists and stakeholders asking the important questions."