Global Emissions (2024)

FAQs

What is Taylor Swift's carbon footprint? ›

Her private jet usage amounted to an estimated 8,300 tonnes of carbon emissions in 2022 – that's about 1,800 times the average human's annual emissions, or 576 times that of the average American and about 1,000 times that of the average European.

Global emissions have increased rapidly over the last 50 years and have not yet peaked.

Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions. As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun's heat.

Toward a peak in global emissions

The finding is supported by analysis from Climate Analytics, which found a 70% chance of emissions falling from 2024 if current growth in clean technologies continues.

The top culprit of high carbon emissions is the case of Taylor Swift. In 2023 alone, her total flight emissions was reportedly 8,293.54 tons, which is over a thousand times the annual emissions of the average person.

A private jet linked to Taylor Swift flew for 13 minutes to land at a destination 28 miles away from its starting point late last month, according to flight tracking information posted by Jack Sweeney.

China was the largest climate polluter, making up nearly 30% of global emissions. top 20 global climate polluters — dominated by China, India, the United States and the European Union — were responsible for 83% of emissions in 2022.

Researchers found that of all the carbon emissions in the world in 2019, 16% was produced by the top 1% wealthiest people worldwide — a group that includes billionaires, millionaires and those who earn more than $140,000 a year.

Global CO₂ emissions from all sectors have significantly increased since 1850. The majority of this increase has resulted from increased fossil fuel consumption and industrial emissions. Agriculture, deforestation, and other land-use changes have been the second-largest contributors.

China has the largest CO ₂ emissions in the world, but also the largest population. Some argue that for a fair comparison, emissions should be analyzed in terms of the amount of CO ₂ per capita.

Does China pollute more than the US? ›

In 2006, China overtook the US to become the world's largest annual emitter of greenhouse gases and its citizens now have carbon footprints well above the global average. However, its cumulative and per-capita emissions remain about half of the US's today.

China's shrinking carbon footprint is partly a result of investments in wind and solar power that are replacing coal as an energy source. China is on track to reach a goal of installing 1,200 gigawatts of renewables five years ahead of schedule.

30 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides new evidence that global warming is on track to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial averages in the early 2030s, regardless of how much greenhouse gas emissions rise or fall in the coming decade.

It really is awful that Swift is contributing to climate change through her travel on private jets and the logistics of moving her show around the world. She has emitted the equivalent of 1,800 average people in 2023, burning nearly 3,000 tons of it.

China has the highest carbon footprint; i.e. 27% of the entire carbon dioxide emitted from the consumption of energy, by all countries put together, comes from China.

To her credit, Swift has invested in carbon offsets—where you pay someone else to (supposedly) reduce their emissions or plant enough trees to balance your emissions, so the impact of your harmful output is seemingly minimized.