The private jet business is bigger than you think.

Pop star Taylor Swift is facing backlash after being placed on the list of famous carbon dioxide polluters last week. Digital marketing agency Yard said in its report that her private jet has an average flight time of 80 minutes and her carbon emissions totaled 8,300 tons this year.

In response to the controversy surrounding the listing, Swift’s spokesperson told Rolling Stone that her jet is “regularly loaned out to other individuals” and that “it would be inappropriate for her to go to most or all of it.”

The Yard said on its website that while it is impossible to know whether the celebrities were on all flights, “the purpose of this study is to highlight the detrimental effects of private jet use.”

The information was taken from the @CelebJets Twitter account, which reports on the flying habits of the rich and famous. @CelebJets takes its data from the ADS-B Exchange, a flight tracking service run by aviation enthusiasts who aggregate flight data.

@CelebJets remembers not only how many tons of carbon emissions are released, but also where these celebs travel and the cost of fuel. Last month @CelebJets The 17-minute flight is highlighted Taken by Kylie Jenner’s private jet, it can take over 40 minutes by car.

Jenner Received a response For the trip, she posted a photo on Instagram of her with her boyfriend, Travis Scott, between two private jets. “Do you want to take mine or yours?” Read the description.

One Twitter user wrote: “Kylie Jenner is out here taking a 3 minute flight on a private jet but I’m the one who has to use a paper straw.

Celebrities aren’t the only ones renting private jets — executives from big companies like Google and Apple use them to get to their destinations, he said. Puneet Dwivedi, Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Georgia.

The private jet industry is booming despite the growing awareness of air travel for the climate crisis and climate change. There were 3.3 million business jet flights in calendar year 2021, a 7% increase from 2019, according to data from WingX Advance.

We have a long way to go to reduce emissions: To avoid warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world must achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, according to a report by the UN’s Climate Change Panel.

The aviation sector accounts for 2.4% of total carbon emissions. According to a study published in the journal Global Environmental Change, the most frequent flyers – 1 percent of people – are responsible for more than half of these emissions.

In another study, Indiana University researchers Richard Wilk and Beatriz Barros measured the superrich’s carbon footprint, looking at emissions from transportation, shipping and housing.

In the year They found that in 2018, 20 billionaires emitted a total of 55,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from their transportation alone. These 20 people each emitted an average of 8,190 tons of carbon dioxide in 2018, compared to all U.S. residents, who each emitted roughly 15 tons of carbon dioxide over the same period.

“While many billionaires take environmental measures in their personal or corporate lives, or donate money to climate change organizations and buy carbon offsets, none of these actions offset their overall emissions,” the researchers wrote. Their conclusion.

According to Maury Cohen, a professor of sustainability studies at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, private jet use has become commonplace in recent decades. While accounts like @CelebJets are raising awareness about private jet use, he says it’s more common than people think.

“Private jets are not being used with the commercial facilities that we have. “They tend to use secondary and tertiary airports, so they never see the planes, unless there’s a mass event like Davos, or some big tech industry event,” Cohen said.

Carriers wanted to offer “superior air travel” beyond business class or first class, Cohen noted.

He explained that the private jet business takes many forms: You can now buy equity in planes through companies like NetJets and Flexjet, or you can buy a voucher that gives you a limited number of flights on these planes. Cohen said there are no signs of a slowdown in private jet use.

There may be a silver lining in sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs, made from cattle and used as an alternative to the fossil fuels that typically power airplanes, said David of the University of Georgia. If private jet users help buy SAFs, that will help expand the market. This is because if the supply increases, eventually the price will decrease, he explained.

Some companies are just getting started. Earlier this month, Alaska Airlines, Microsoft and carbon transformation company Asravelve announced that they are working together to “develop the future” of SAF.

But there are challenges associated with producing the fuel because growing crops for biofuels can harm the environment.