CO2 emissions from private flights to the World Economic Forum

The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos brings together ‘leaders from government, business, and civil society to address the state of the world and discuss priorities for the year ahead’ (World Economic Forum, 2022b). In 2023, the number of participants is expected to exceed 2,500 (World Economic Forum, 2022a), many of whom will charter private flights to get to the venue. Private flights have significantly higher emissions per passenger than any other standard mode of transport. According to Transport and Environment, private jets are 5 to 14 times more polluting per passenger than commercial flights, and 50 times more polluting than trains (Transport & Environment, 2021). Some private jets emit two tonnes of CO2 per hour (Transport & Environment, 2021), while the carbon footprint of inhabitants of the EU-27 was equal to 6.8 tonnes of per person in 2019 (Eurostat, 2022). This report analyses private flights associated with the WEF 2022, which was held from 22 May, 2022 until 26 May, 2022. It estimates the number of flights, their fuel use and CO2 emissions during the event. Prepared by CE Delft for Greenpeace International.