Private jets caused 147 kilotons of carbon pollution at the World Cup

 Private jets caused 147 kilotons of carbon pollution at the World Cup

• Chuck for Inequality.org 

  From:info@email.ips-dc.org

  To:Mark M Giese

  Mon, Jul 27 2026 at 1:25 PM

  Dear Mark M,    15.2 million gallons of jet fuel. And more carbon pollution than driving 34,000 cars for a year.   That’s the cost of a handful of ultra-rich people flying private jets to World Cup games.   It’s no surprise that billionaires don’t give a hoot about their impact on climate pollution. But it’s still a shock to see the total impact from this one event.   Read more about the findings from our new Private Jet Accountability Project in this exclusive Daily Mail story: The World Cup's dirty little secret.    And if you’re on social media, please help us share these findings: You can also click the social-media links below to find us on other networks: Billionaires can usually hide their planet-scorching habits: mooring their gas-guzzling yachts in elite harbors, hiding gigantic frivolous mansions behind high walls, or financing oil and gas projects in far-flung destinations.   But their private-jet joyrides are harder to hide. All airplanes have to broadcast their position, aircraft model, velocity, and altitude at all times. So anyone with the right antenna can track them. We worked with the worldwide community of 20,000+ open-source trackers to build a new tool (the Private Jet Emissions Tracker, or PJET) that analyzes the private-jet flights into and out of specific locations and times — like the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby, or every game of the World Cup.   Then, we narrow our scope to look only at “business jets”, excluding commercial flights and other types. The tool calculates a normal level of private jet flights and attribute “excess” CO2 emissions to specific events — allowing anyone to see the carbon-pollution impact from private jets.   The tracker is all open source — you can see our code on the IPS Github, and our findings in this public spreadsheet. And learn about the whole project at taxprivatejets.org.   We've created this jet-tracking initiative because we must build the movement to tax and regulate private jets, as well as other antisocial billionaire behavior.    Thanks for helping us take on billionaires and the private-jet class. Chuck Collins   Co-founder, Inequality.org Director, Program on Inequality and the Common Good Institute for Policy Studies Inequality.org is a nonprofit project, part of the Institute for Policy Studies. We depend on paid subscribers to help us sustain our five-person research, editorial, publishing and campaign team.