Queen warns leaders to 'rise above the politics' at COP26
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The President of the European Commission has reportedly flown aboard a private jet on 18 out of her 34 official trips since taking up office in December 2019. Among those trips was reportedly a brief, 31-mile flight from Vienna to Bratislava, which would have taken just over an hour by train. The EU official has now been accused of contributing to a “climate disaster”, despite her commitments to slashing planet-warming greenhouse emissions across Europe.
On Tuesday, Mrs von der Leyen chaired a roundtable meeting at the COP26 summit in Glasgow with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden.
She hailed the EU’s Global Gateway initiative, which will help facilitate partnerships with Africa as part of the European Green Deal.
The initiative was announced this September in a bid to limit China’s growing influence on the African continent.
The Commission President said: “Indeed, Global Gateway, for example, will build on values such as labour and environmental standards. Our people are asking for it.”
She went on to say the initiative will work hand-in-hand with the private sector and said recent dealings with South Africa are an “outstanding” example of how the UK, US and Europe are “launching together this just energy partnership with South Africa”.
The nations have joined forces to help South Africa make the transition from fossil fuels and to green energy.
The EU as a whole has committed to curbing greenhouse emissions in a bid to reach net-zero by 2050.
However, Mrs von der Leyen’s comments were overshadowed today by news of her frequent “air taxi” trips around Europe.
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According to a report published in The Telegraph, the EU leader took the same private jet on a trip between Lisbon and Madrid – about 320 miles – before flying off to Athens.
A source told the newspaper the trips were “not feasible with commercial flights”.
Mrs von der Leyen is also reported to have flown aboard a private jet to London in January 2020 to hold Brexit trade talks with the Prime Minister, although she returned to Brussels aboard the Eurostar train.
And she is not the only leader arriving at COP26 this week to have faced intense criticism over their carbon footprint.
Private jets are said to have a disproportionate effect on the environment as they release up to tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) every hour.
For comparison, the average European citizen emits the carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2eq) of 8.2 tCO2eq throughout the year.
A May 2021 report published by the Transport and Environment NGO claimed private jets are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes, per passenger, and 50 times more polluting than trains.
Mrs von der Leyen’s decision to jet around Europe has been criticised by Helena Bennett, a senior policy adviser at Green Alliance.
She told The Telegraph: “Private jets are a disaster for the climate.
“A single-one private flight emits two tonnes of carbon emissions, which is a quarter of the carbon produced by the average European in a whole year.
“From presidents and prime ministers jet setting around the world to business people flying to conferences that could be done over Zoom, we need to travel more sustainably.
“There are many alternative modes that can be used by the wealthy and important, including trains and coaches, when necessary, economy class flights, which are responsible for far fewer emissions per person.”
However, a spokeswoman for the Commission has said “air taxis” are only ordered when absolutely necessary to “to enable presence at meetings in various places on a very packed schedule”.
And on her trip to Glasgow, Mrs von der Leyen is said to have flown on a plane using “biofuels”.
Express.co.uk has asked the European Commission to comment.
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