For more information, contact Sean Currie at Stay Grounded, +447961485850, press@stay-grounded.org
On Monday 2nd October, over 75 organisations issued an open letter calling on national and European policymakers to ban private jets and tax frequent flying.
As the letter explains: “devastation is being wrought by a small class of rich hypermobile elites, who are incentivised to take luxury flights by frequent flyer programmes, and some of whom splurge their wealth on needless, super-polluting private jets. Fortunately, there are feasible policy solutions to this crisis of greed”.
The open letter is signed by civil society organisations, including national Friends of the Earth organisations, Corporate Europe Observatory, and Stay Grounded, which is itself an international network of 200+ organisations.
The letter comes on the day that the European Parliament is grilling the controversially proposed European Climate Commissioner and former Shell employee, Wopke Hoekstra. Due to this selection, climate NGOs and movements are looking elsewhere for climate leadership, and therefore have addressed the letter to Europe Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean and national transport ministers, among others.
The letter, which argues “while most of us have been struggling through a cost of living crisis, private jet sales will likely reach a record high this year”, has been launched two days after marches took place in Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, Luxembourg, Turkey, and Austria against the cost of living crisis.
“One billionaire damages the climate as much with an eleven-minute flight as several individuals from the poorer part of the world’s population do during their entire lifetime. We cannot make any more exceptions for the super-rich. We have to ban private jets, and instead of rewarding frequent flyers with air miles programmes, it’s time to tax frequent flying” says Sean Currie from the Stay Grounded network.
“The policies are easy to implement, we now have to show politicians that there is public support for stopping this climate injustice”, concludes Sean Currie.
This open letter is part of a wider campaign targeting the inequality of aviation, and builds on several months of actions and blockades of private jet airports and fairs organised by climate activists.
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
- Full text and list of signatories: https://stay-grounded.org/ban-private-jets-open-letter/
- Photos and video for free use: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAWTUU
- More background information on private jets: https://stay-grounded.org/ban-private-jets/
- Press contact: Stay Grounded, Sean Currie, +447961485850, press@stay-grounded.org