Taylor Swift is currently in the UK on her much hyped Eras Tour.
The Don’t Blame Me singer has been travelling the world in private jets since the tour – which spans her 10 albums and 18-year career – kicked off in Arizona in the US in March 2023. In between shows she has made trips to to meet up with her boyfriend Travis Kelce, including a 12-hour flight from Tokyo to Las Vegas to support him at the Super Bowl.
The 34-year-old singer previously owned two private jets which flew 178,000 miles in 2023, and has previously been named as the celebrity with the highest carbon footprint. She recently sold one of her planes.
Now wildlife presenter Chris Packham has called on Swift to sell off her private jets and start taking commercial flights to travel. But the Cruel Summer singer is not unaware of the effects of her global air travel on the planet, and has announced she is making efforts to offset her carbon footprint.
According to digital sustainability consultancy, Yard, Taylor Swift had the highest carbon emissions of the celebrities they analysed in 2022 – before her Eras tour had even begun. Swift made 170 documented flights that year, the equivalent of 15.9 days in the air and producing a total flight CO2 emissions of 8,293.54 tonnes.
College student Jack Sweeney is a social media influencer who has made it his mission to track the carbon footprint of stars including tech billionaire Elon Musk and pop star Swift. He takes his data from a website which logs contributions from over 800 ADS-B Receivers. Swifts lawyers have sent him a Cease and Desist letter asking him to stop publishing her travel details, accusing him of providing “individuals intent on harming her, or with nefarious or violent intentions, a roadmap to carry out their plans.”
Sweeney revealed in a YouTube video: “Swift’s two private jets flew 178,000 miles in 2023 equivalent to flying around the Earth seven times, emitting 1,200 tons of CO2 in the process. That’s 83 times the average American.”
What has Chris Packham said about Swift?
The Springwatch presenter talked to the Mirror about Swift’s legal battle with Sweeney. Packham said: “So [Sweeney] called her out and she threatened to sue him. And I just thought: ‘You really missed the trick there, Taylor’. What you should have said is: ‘You’re right, times have moved on. I’ve got to change my practice. I’m going to sell my private jets’.”
What is Swift doing to combat her carbon emissions?
The Shake It Off singer’s representative has defended her private jet usage, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 that she often loans her private jet out to others, so all of the trips made can not be attributed to her.
They released a statement in February 2024 to AP saying: “Taylor purchased more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all tour travel,” before the Eras tour started.
What are carbon credits?
Carbon offsets are sold by projects or initiatives that reduce or capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This could be through creating new natural ecosystems by planting trees for example, or using carbon removal or carbon capture technologies.
Individuals or corporations are not required to publicly disclose the sources of carbon offsets. The Blank Space star’s record label Universal didn’t reveal where she had bought hers.
An investigation on the carbon standard body Verra published in 2023 claimed that 90 per sent of carbon credits are worthless. Danny Cullenward, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy said: “The entire market is structured around a fundamental falsehood: that a ton of carbon we get from burning fossil fuels is identical to a ton of carbon stored in forests. That is 100 percent false.”
Coldplay were the forerunners in acknowledging the damage to the environment of touring. They first told the BBC in 2019 that they would not tour again until they could do it in a more sustainable way. The band then announced in 2021 they were embarking on a 12-point plan to cut the carbon footprint of touring by 50 per cent. They recently announced they have beaten this target and successfully cut their carbon emissions by 59 per cent during the first two years of their Music of the Spheres world tour.
Billie Eilish has taken steps to reduce the carbon footprint of her tour by cutting plastic waste through using refillable cups water filling stations at her shows. She has also made an effort to reduce carbon emissions and feature plant-based food options at venues. The What Was I Made For? singer also uses solar-powered batteries on tour and produces her records using recycled vinyl and packaging.
Jack Johnson has also taken the same steps to rescue plastic waste at gigs and donates $2 US dollars (£1.58) from every ticket to carbon offset projects. And Pearl Jam gave invested $1 million US dollars (£788,000) in carbon credits for its Gigaton tour.
