EU declares 'Climate emergency' after increasing private jets budget for EU officials by ov

Climate emergency for thee, but not for me. The European parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” as it urged all EU countries to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Intended to demonstrate Europe’s green credentials days before a crucial UN climate conference in Madrid, the vote also ratchets up pressure on Ursula von der Leyen, the incoming president of the European commission, who declared this week that the EU would lead the fight against “the existential threat” of the climate crisis. “Our house is on fire. The European parliament has seen the blaze, but it’s not enough to stand by and watch,” said Greenpeace’s EU climate policy adviser, Sebastian Mang, shortly before the vote.

At the same time that EU politicans are delcaring a "climate emergency" because "it's an existential threat" and that "our house is on fire" the European Union is planning to spend millions of euros more on private jet flights for its top officials. In fact it will increase its spending on private jets by over 50% in the next 5 years. Shock figures show the EU has raised its “air taxi” flights budget by more than €3.5million despite pledging to cut emissions in the fight against climate change. The EU’s tender database showed the budget will rise to €10.71 million from 2016 to 2021, which is a 50 per cent hike on the budget of €7.14 million. The head of the EU commision, Jean Claude Juncker, used private jets in 2018 for almost half of his official visits in that year, with one overnight trip costing €40,000, despite EU laws banning 'air taxis' unless there are no other flights.

Perhaps the EU is not aware about the damaging impacts private jets have on the environment and on climate change, or perhaps it just decides that what constitutes an "emergency" to everyone else, does not include its officials and politicians.