An Irish Senator Lynn Boylan is turning the hue and cry over short flights by celebrities into action. The senator has called for a $ 3,000′ luxury emissions’ tax to be levied on private jets departing Irish airports. Instead of simply Tweeting about it or debating and dismissing it, this step will be instrumental in changing the behavior of the wealthy living “carbon-intensive lifestyles.”
Ms.Boylan also threw light on Switzerland’s plans to tax private jet flights and Canada’s luxury tax on the sale and importation of high-value cars, planes, and boats. The tax would surely guarantee changes since 6,000 private aircraft departed from Irish airports in pre-pandemic 2019.
Per The Irish Times, Ms. Boylan said emissions from private jets had shown a 31 percent increase in CO2 emissions over 15 years up to 2019, faster than the rest of the aviation industry. She highlighted a private jet emits two tonnes of CO2 in an hour compared to an Irish person emits 12.3 tonnes of CO2 in a year. Celebrities hit these figures out of the park as emission output from some celebrities was as much as 1,000 tonnes. Case in point, football legend Lionel Messi faced backlash for taking 52 private jet trips in three months, causing 150 years’ worth of CO2 to be released.
Jet-tracking teen Jack Sweeney also rose to fame for elucidating the carbon footprints of ultra-rich celebrities like Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, and Mark Cuban. The junior minister told her the Department of Transport would have to get accurate annual figures of the number of private jets departing from Irish airports to determine the feasibility of the proposed levy.