Top scientists blockade UK and international private airports to demand end to obscene private jet use

Global protest calls for ban on private jet flights and tax on frequent flyers to help fund climate loss and damage reparations

Link to Global images https://xrb.link/wz1WMk1U

This cross-continent, co-ordinated, non-violent action, which involves hundreds of activists from Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Scientist Rebellion (SR),  is part of a bold new international campaign dubbed "Make Them Pay" and the campaign intends to target private airports in other countries across the globe.

Scientists and young climate campaigners will barricade multiple private airports across thirteen countries, including Farnborough Airport  and London Luton Airport’s Harrods Terminal, to demand a total ban on all private jets and a tax on frequent flyers.

The protestors are calling on world leaders gathering this week at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, for the UN's 27th annual climate change conference (COP27), to take action to end the use of private jets, which are 5 to 14 times more polluting per passenger than commercial planes and 50 times more polluting than trains. Campaigners are also demanding a tax on those who fly frequently to cut emissions and help raise funds to pay for the loss and damage caused by climate breakdown.

Activists at Farnborough - Europe’s premier private jet facility - are today (10th November) locked-on at the iconic Whittle Gate, whilst at London Luton, the luxurious Harrods Aviation terminal is the backdrop for the protest. Climate campaigners are lighting coloured flares, chanting slogans and waving banners proclaiming “Ban Private Jets”, “Tax Frequent Flyers” and “Make Them Pay”

The campaign is targeting the climate destroying, jet-setting life-styles of billionaires and multi-millionaires which are exacerbating climate breakdown and condemning the global majority to a lifetime of poverty.

Today’s international action is taking place as COP27 enters its fourth day  at Sharm El Sheikh – a day designated as both Science Day and the Youth and Future Generation Day.

The protests also seek to highlight a proposal made by the Least Developed Countries Group  - which represents the most climate-vulnerable countries at COP27 - for a global aviation tax to fund climate finance, address loss & damage, and adaptation in their countries. Multiple national Citizens’ Assemblies have shown that ordinary people support the “Make Them Pay” campaign demands.

Research has shown that just 1% of the global population produces over a half of total aviation emissions while 80% of the global population have never actually stepped foot onboard an aircraft.

Dr. Gianluca Grimalda, social science researcher, and a member of the Scientist Rebellion, said: “It is obscene that Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates can fly their private jets tax free, while global communities starve. It’s only fair that wealthy polluters pay the most into climate loss and damage funds to help the most vulnerable countries adapt.” 

Finlay Asher, an aviation worker said: “Aviation represents the pinnacle of climate injustice and emissions inequality, I can’t stand by watching the emissions from my industry continue to grow and contribute to the climate carnage wreaking havoc around the world, private jet sales are booming we're utterly failing on economic and climate justice”

Youth climate campaigner Hallie said: “The future of humanity and civilisation as we know it is at play at COP27. It’s Code Red for Humanity.” and youth activist Becca concluded “Private flights are costing us the Earth and are flying us headlong towards extinction.  Private jets must be banned. Climate Reparations Now.”

– ENDS –

EDITORS NOTES

Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion (XR) is a decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.
To learn more about XR’s three demands please visit the Global website at https://rebellion.global/about-us/ & in the UK visit https://extinctionrebellion.uk/the-truth/demands/

Scientist Rebellion
Scientist Rebellion are scientists and academics who believe we should expose the reality and severity of the climate and ecological emergency by engaging in non-violent civil disobedience. Unless those best placed to understand behave as if this is an emergency, we cannot expect the public to do so. Some believe that appearing “alarmist” is detrimental - but we are terrified by what we see, and believe it is both vital and right to express our fears openly.
To learn more visit: https://scientistrebellion.com

COP27
The Conference of the Parties official website https://www.cop27.eg/

MakeThem Pay Campaign
Campaign website: https://makethempay.info/

Least Developed Countries  - Aviation / Loss and Damage / Climate Adaptation
https://www.ldc-climate.org/
Vulnerable countries demand global tax to pay for climate-led loss and damage
https://www.ldc-climate.org/press_release/ministers-from-the-least-developed-countries-meet-in-dakar-to-discuss-the-groups-climate-change-priorities-ahead-of-cop27/
https://unfccc.int/topics/adaptation-and-resilience/the-big-picture/what-do-adaptation-to-climate-change-and-climate-resilience-mean


Citizens Assemblies recommendations on private jets and frequent flyer taxes
Multiple national Citizens’ Assemblies have produced such recommendations for the aviation sector, including:


Aviation Inequality
The MASSIVE Inequality of Flying (Part 10: Sustainable Aviation)

Flying is the fastest way we can burn fossil fuels and produce greenhouse gas emissions. It is also a highly unequal activity as only 2% to 4% of the global population flew internationally in 2018, and only 1% of world population emitted 50% of CO2 from commercial aviation. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

Private jets are even worse as they are 5 to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes (per passenger), and 50 times more polluting than trains (https://www.transportenvironment.org/...)
Moreover, 1% of the global population produces over a half of total aviation emissions while 80% of the global population have never actually stepped foot onboard an aircraft

The Polluter Elite

https://www.firstpost.com/explainers/elon-musk-new-private-jet-gulfstream-g700-11563321.html

https://simpleflying.com/bill-gates-private-jet-collection/

https://www.therichest.com/luxury/amazon-air-inside-jeff-bezos-insane-150-million-private-jets/


CODE RED FOR HUMANITY

Video message by UN Secretary General at the WGII AR6 press conference

IPCC adaptation report ‘a damning indictment of failed global leadership on climate’

https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/02/1112852


Scientist Rebellion on Climate Change, Inequality and Resistance.

There is universal scientific consensus that climate change is caused by GHG emissions associated with the burning of fossil fuels in activities such as transport, heating, production. Historically, emissions have been marked by strong inequalities, both within and between countries. The US and Europe alone have produced about 50% of GHGs, even if the share of their world population is only 17% (Ritchie, 2019). Sub-Saharan African countries, with roughly the same amount of population, have produced only 4% of total emissions  (Chancel et al., 2022) but are most vulnerable to seeing their land becoming completely uninhabitable by 2070 (Xu et al., 2020). 

Moreover, wealthy people emit a much larger amount of GHGs than the average world citizen. The typical person in the top 1% of the global wealth emissions distribution emits hundreds of times more GHGs than the average person in the bottom half of the emission distribution (Chancel et al., 2022). 

XR and SR citizens and scientists say that stopping these outrageous disparities in emissions is not only a moral imperative. It is also the most efficient way to contain emissions and avoid the most nefarious consequences of the incoming eco-climate breakdown. Banning private jets and yachts and introducing taxes on luxury consumption are examples of essential measures that policy-makers at the COP27 should implement immediately.

XR and SR practice civil resistance against the current model of economic development, which is leading us to a “collective suicide”, as vividly stated by UN Secreterary General Antonio Guterres. XR and SR citizens and scientists are aware that their action will break the law and that they will be put under arrest for these actions. Nonetheless, they think that civil resistance is necessary for societies to switch toward emergency mode, albeit past the eleventh hour.

References:

Armstrong McKay, David I., Arie Staal, Jesse F. Abrams, Ricarda Winkelmann, Boris Sakschewski, Sina Loriani, Ingo Fetzer, Sarah E. Cornell, Johan Rockström, and Timothy M. Lenton. "Exceeding 1.5° C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points." Science 377, no. 6611 (2022): eabn7950.

Barros, B., & Wilk, R. (2021). The outsized carbon footprints of the super-rich. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 17(1), 316-322.

Chancel, L. Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman (2022). World Inequality Report: . https://wir2022.wid.world/

IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926

Ritchie, H. (2019: Who has contributed most to global CO2 emissions?, Our World in data: https://ourworldindata.org/contributed-most-global-co2

Steffen, Will, Katherine Richardson, Johan Rockström, Sarah E. Cornell, Ingo Fetzer, Elena M. Bennett, Reinette Biggs et al. "Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet." science 347, no. 6223 (2015): 1259855.

Wallace-Wells, D. (2019). The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, Crown InternationalXu, C., Kohler, T. A., Lenton, T. M., Svenning, J. C., & Scheffer, M. (2020). Future of the human climate niche. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(21), 11350-11355.

Stop the SLP

Will you resist? The SLP, ExxonMobil's new Southampton to London Heathrow aviation fuel pipeline, is cutting a swathe of destruction across South East England; putting planet and people before profit and enabling our government's ecocidal airport expansion plans.
Will you be complicit? or will you join in the resistance and #StopTheSLP ?
Listen to this powerful testimony and decide.
"We're on the brink, we see the decades of denial and failure to act. Ice caps melting, forests on fire, floods and famine"


Learn more : https://xr-southeast.uk/stop-the-southampton-to-london-heathrow-pipeline/


Climate Change brings Conflict

STRICTLY EMBARGOED FOR PRIOR RELEASE

Link to images below, available from 9.30am Monday 18th July 2022 and throughout the day:

https://xrb.link/E6Nu86 

Videos and Livestreams taking place from around 8.30am. Available to view afterwards.

https://www.facebook.com/XRSouthEastUK/​​​​​​

Press contact
xrsoutheastmedia@gmail.com

Hashtags : #InvestInLifeNotDeath  : #OurChildrensFuture : #ClimateChangeBringsConflict : #WarIsEcocide

Updates on social media

https://twitter.com/XrSouthEastUK  :  https://www.instagram.com/xrsoutheastuk/



Invest in Life not Death. Heart breaking “Pram Rebellion” staged at Farnborough Airshow

Climate Change brings Conflict, a dignified procession takes place as famous Air Show becomes an Arms Fair
 

A dignified procession takes place as the famous Farnborough Air Show becomes an Arms Fair.

In solemn procession, and in solidarity with Quakers and Greater Rushmoor Action For Peace, Extinction Rebellion drew attention to the rise in global conflict brought by climate breakdown. 

Dressed in mourning clothes and pushing empty white prams, Pram Rebellion walks slowly to the sound of sorrowful music, mourning our children’s future and in memoriam of children suffering and dying now in countries most affected by conflict and climate change.

The protest takes place at the opening of the Farnborough Airshow, on a day when the temperature record for Hampshire of 36.1°C may be broken and as climate scientists anticipate Britain experiencing its first 40°C temperatures.

Farnborough Airshow is one of the largest aerospace and defence exhibitions, attracting thousands of exhibitors and visitors from all around the world.  This year sees a heavy presence from arms companies including Lockheed Martin, Elbit, Rafael Armed Defence Systems and BAE Systems who are the largest defence contractors in Europe.

Hannah, 32, an actuarial consultant from Farnborough said
“Arms manufacturers are meeting in air conditioned halls to sell their destructive technologies, as ordinary people here in the UK are sweltering in a heatwave which experts tell us is a wake up call on climate change. Conflicts over basic resources like food and water are inevitable.
We must invest in life, not the machinery of death.”


Steve, 51, a company director from Surrey said
"I didn't want to dress in black funeral attire and push a heavy pram to Farnborough Arms and Airshow on the hottest day in UK records, but it's that heat that is the very reason I did. Governments around the world are fully aware that the greatest security rish posed to their countries will come as a result of climate change, and are they're pumping billions of dollars into their armed forces to be ready for the conflicts will arise. I'm not sitting back and watching the lunacy of this military spending and investment in aviation growth instead of tackling the climate disastter. My discomfort in the heat was nothing compared to those who died today, and those who will dies in the days, weeks and years ahead because of our governments' collective inaction."

The world’s armed forces are amongst the largest climate polluters, but avoid scrutiny as countries do not have to include armed forces’ emissions in their climate targets.  The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) says the UK military’s total annual carbon footprint is 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide but Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) estimate the true figure to be 11m tonnes.

The MoD admits climate breakdown will increase global conflicts. Climate change is a “threat multiplier” that makes already dangerous social and political situations even worse.  Countries such as China and Russia have been growing their armed forces for sometime.  In the last two years alone, over 200 conflicts over water have been recorded.

The objectives of many arms companies are not socially well aligned.  Prioritising profits means they sell to countries with some of the worst human rights records and even take advantage of their own countries to protect their business.

One Air Show exhibitor typifying this is BAE Systems who have a large presence at the Farnborough Airshow.   Its CO2 emissions account for 30% of the UK’s arms industry.  

Since the beginning of war in Ukraine, BAE Systems share price has increased by about 33% as investors expect bigger profits.  Its employees are fundraising to help Ukranians, some very generously.  In contrast, records of BAE Systems donations are not readily available.  

BAE Systems enjoys windfall profits.  However in the past when equipment it has designed fails to meet the necessary standard, it is the UK government, taxpayers, who pick up the bill.  Despite being the design authority for the Type 45 destroyer, when it became apparent that the ships were unable to operate in high temperatures, the UK government had to pay an additional £160 million to make them useable.


BAE Systems' reputation is starting to affect its social licence to operate, resulting in courts acquitting people planning to sabotage their aircraft.  In 2017 two protesters were arrested after breaking into BAE Systems’ Warton base.  They planned to damage Typhoon jets due to be exported to Saudi Arabia, where they believed they would be used in the war in Yemen.  They were both acquitted.

Even the UK government is trying to reduce its dependency on BAE Systems with the contract for the Type 31 destroyer.  One defence analyst has been quoted as saying - "Were they to have bid as BAE Systems, they wouldn't win. That is absolutely obvious. The fact is that the Type 31 is slanted, probably to exclude any bid that includes BAE.”

Let's not forget where the priorities of all arms manufacturers lie, they profit from the suffering that war brings. Extinction Rebellion demands they invest in life, not death.


Notes for Editors

Greater Rushmore Action for Peace https://www.facebook.com/GRAWantiwar/

Highest maximum recorded temperature for Hampshire: 36.1°C, 1944.

https://www.hampshirelive.news/news/hampshire-news/hampshire-heatwave-could-temperatures-set-7324492

High temperatures a ‘wake-up call on climate change’

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/high-temperatures-a-e2-80-98wake-up-call-for-climate-change-e2-80-99/ar-AAZC9M4

21 of the biggest 40 Western defence companies will be at the Airshow, which is arguably an Arms Fair.

BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrop Grumman,

General Dynamics, L3Harris Technologies, Airbus, Leonardo, Thales, Honeywell, Rolls-Royce, Safran Hanwha, Elbit Systems, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Naval Group, Dassault,

Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Jacobs
https://www.farnboroughairshow.com/fia2022/
https://www.farnboroughairshow.com/media/ivhlmrie/fia2022-exhibitor-list-260422.pdf

The Ministry of Defence acknowledges that climate change brings conflict
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-defence-climate-change-and-sustainability-strategic-approach/ministry-of-defence-climate-change-and-sustainability-strategic-approach-accessible-version

In the last two years alone, over 200 conflicts over water have been recorded.

https://www.worldwater.org/conflict/map/


Ukraine war: How weapons makers are profiting from the conflict
https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-how-weapons-makers-are-profiting-from-the-conflict-12624574

10 ways that the Climate Crisis and Militarism are intertwined
(CounterPunch Article at www.counterpunch.org/2019/09/27/10-ways-that-the-climate-crisis-and-militarism-are-intertwined/)

World’s armed forces amongst the largest climate polluters, but avoid scrutiny

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/11/worlds-militaries-avoiding-scrutiny-over-emissions

The world’s militaries are avoiding scrutiny over emissions, scientists say.

Countries do not have to include armed forces’ emissions in their targets despite estimates that the sector creates 6% of greenhouse gases.

The Ministry of Defence says the UK military’s total annual carbon footprint is 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), but other sources estimate the true figure to be 11m tonnes.  That is roughly the amount 6m average cars would emit annually.

A 2019 report found that the US Department of Defense is not only the largest consumer of energy in the US but is also the world’s largest institutional consumer of petroleum and, thus, the world’s largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/10/pentagon-us-military-emissions-climate-crisis


BAE SYSTEMS

BAE Systems CO2 emissions account for 30% of the UK arms industry

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/11/worlds-militaries-avoiding-scrutiny-over-emissions

The UK-based company with the largest carbon emissions is BAE Systems, whose emissions account for about 30% of the UK arms industry’s total output.

BAE System share price is up 33% since the beginning of the war in Ukraine as shareholders expect bigger profits.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/ukraine-war-uk-lords-richer-arms-investments-russia-bae-systems/

Samuel Perlo-Freeman, research coordinator for the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said: “War is good for no one but arms dealers.”

BAE Systems up 33% since the beginning of the war in Crimea.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/BAE-Systems-Employee-Fundraising

BAE Systems takes the profits, but when the UKs Type 45 destroyed were found not to meet the design specification and needed its power plants upgraded;  the UK government had to foot the bill, even though BAE Systems was the design authority for Type 45 destroyers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_45_destroyer#Characteristics

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/cost-type-45-destroyer-fix-revealed/

BAE Systems is the Design Authority for the Type 45, a role traditionally held by the Ministry of Defence.

https://www.naval-technology.com/projects/type-45-destroyer
In March 2018, UK MoD awarded a £160m ($226.5m) contract to BAE Systems for power and propulsion system of Type 45 destroyers as a part of power improvement project (PIP).

BAE have a large presence at Farnborough Air Show

https://www.baesystems.com/en/cybersecurity/event/farnborough-international-airshow

Meet BAE Systems in Hall 5 (FIVE exhibition hall)

The UK courts are concerned about who BAE Systems are prepared to sell arms to.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/saudi-arabia-yemen-fighter-jets-bae-systems-acquitted-criminal-damage-this-week-a8022861.html

In 2017 two protesters were arrested having gained access to BAE Systems’ Warton base.  They were about to damage Typhoon jets due to be exported to Saudi Arabia, where they believed they would be used in the war in Yemen.

They were acquitted.  One of the protesters said - “Our acquittal was a vindication of the position we took, and a condemnation of the hypocrisy that lies at the heart of UK foreign policy.” 

The UK government is trying to reduce its reliance on BAE Systems

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_31_frigate#National_Shipbuilding_Strategy

Nuclear Weapons and climate change
https://icanw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Nuclear-weapons-and-our-climate-Sept-2019.pdf

The United Nations have ratified a worldwide ban on nuclear weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which came into force on 22nd Jan 2021. The UK has not ratified this treaty as the rest of the world calls for the end of nuclear weapons. Of the 51 countries that have ratified the treaty 48 are in the global south. This includes Thailand, Vietnam, Malawi and Ghana, countries that are most affected by climate & ecological breakdown.
International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons https://www.icanw.org/the_treaty


About Extinction Rebellion

Time has almost entirely run out to address the ecological crisis which is upon us, including the 6th mass species extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change. Societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices, with human extinction also a possibility, if rapid action is not taken. Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.

Extinction Rebellion’s demands are:

  1. Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.
  2. Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
  3. Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.