Opinion: Why are people still flying to climate conferences by private jet?

Parikh, Maslin and Roberts Professor Priti Parikh (UCL Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction), Professor Mark Maslin (UCL Geography) and Carole Roberts (UCL Geography) estimate the carbon footprint of travel to COP28 in Dubai for different modes of transport in The Conversation. Rishi Sunak, David Cameron and King Charles are just three of the more than 70,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries at the latest UN climate summit in Dubai,  COP28 . But they are among hundreds who will have travelled there by private jet. In fact, the UK prime minister, foreign secretary and king even travelled in  three separate planes. At COP27 in Egypt last year, around  315 private jet journeys  took place. This is an extraordinary statistic, especially as fewer world leaders attended that COP, as many were busy at a G20 summit in Bali. That's why we set up a team of academic experts to estimate the carbon footprint of travel to this year's meeting, COP28 in Dubai, for different modes of transport including private jets.