December’s climate conference is being held on the grounds of Europe’s busiest private jet airport. If we were serious about fighting climate change, wouldn’t private jets have been banned long ago?



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The 40,000 diplomats, politicians, activists, and journalists expected to attend the UN climate summit in Paris will be spending two weeks at an airport. And not just any airport. Dedicated exclusively to private jets, Paris Le Bourget is the busiest private jet hub in Europe.

Ordinary people don’t descend from the clouds and touch down on its consecrated runways. That experience is reserved for royalty, rock stars, and the conspicuously consuming super rich. Offering quick takeoffs and landings, Paris Le Bourget (aka LBG) is “the premier choice for private flights” in and out of the French capital.

Equipped with more private terminals (eight) than anywhere else in the world, it caters to the “ultra high net worth traveller” desiring an open-air terrace or a children’s play area. Patrons who aren’t met by chauffeured limousines can drive away in Porsche rental cars.

If climate change were really a crisis, wouldn’t emissions-spewing private jets have been outlawed long ago? I mean, what possible excuse do preachy celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Oprah Winfrey have for this gas-guzzling self-indulgence?

How fascinating that private jets aren’t even hinted at within the pages of the incredibly-detailed conference site brochure that’s now being disseminated by the French government. And for some reason no one’s talking about the Paris Air Show, either – which has been held on these grounds since 1953.

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