Revealed: Ten stars who’ve got colossal carbon footprints
HARRY Potter actress Emma Watson has been named by researchers as a greenhouse gas ‘super-emitter’.
Swedish academics analysed the carbon footprints of ten famous people who travel the globe.
Miss Watson, the only Briton on the list, had the tenth worst environmental impact out of the group of celebrities selected, based on their social media accounts.
She flew 14 times in 2017 and travelled 42,253 miles, all on scheduled airlines, spending 71 hours in the air, the researchers calculated.
Her carbon footprint from flying alone was 15.1 tons of CO2 – three times that of the global average from all activities.
In her work as a United Nations spokesman, Miss Watson has called for everyone to help the world achieve the UN’s 17 global goals – which include ending extreme poverty, fighting inequality and stopping climate change.
While promoting her film Beauty and the Beast, she supported wearing dresses made out of recycled materials. Topping the list of celebrity greenhouse gas super- emitters was Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, with a whopping carbon footprint of more than 1,600 tons of CO2.
He took 59 flights in 2017, travelling 213,130 miles, mostly on his private Bombardier BD-700 jet, which he describes as his ‘ big splurge’ and which seats 19 passengers.
Second was socialite Paris Hilton, who flew 171,346 miles by various private jets, emitting more than 1,260 tons of CO2 in the process.
Jennifer Lopez flew 139,520 miles, Oprah Winfrey 83,356 miles and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg 65,888 miles. Others in the list include the late designer Karl Lagerfeld, German footballer Andre Schurrle, video producer Felix von der Laden and US businesswoman Meg Whitman.
The figures, published in the journal Annals of Tourism Research, are estimates for 2017 based on the celebrities’ pictures and posts on their social media accounts such as Twitter and Instagram, so may not cover all their travel, the academics admit.
Lead author Steffan Gossling, of Lund University, said he was inspired by fellow Swede Greta Thunberg.
The teenage climate change activist has resolved not to fly, showing that celebrities do not need to leap on jets so frequently, he said.
Mr Gossling added: ‘As Greta Thunberg affirmed early on, “the bigger your carbon footprint, the bigger your moral duty”.’
Miss Watson, one of only three on the celebrity list to stick to scheduled air travel, supports environmental projects to compensate for her jet- setting. A spokesman for the actress said: ‘Emma pays to offset all of her air travel carbon emissions through ClimateCare.org.’