Greenpeace shoots down Sir Elton’s donation

GREENPEACE’s chief scientist has dismissed Sir Elton John’s claims that the duke and duchess of Sussex’s private jet flights were carbon neutral.

The 72-year-old singer defended Harry and Meghan amid a furious row over their use of private jets. He said he paid for the eco-warrior couple’s luxury flights to Nice and made a donation to offset their carbon footprint. On Tuesday, Greenpeace’s Doug Parr said it was not a solution to the climate crisis.

“Carbon offsetting is not a meaningful response to aviation emissions. Good works can be done with cash out into offset schemes, but it is no solution.”

Sir Elton insisted Harry and Meghan’s return flights to the French Riviera – where they stayed in his and husband David Furnish’s £15-million (R280 million) palatial villa – were carbon neutral. The rock star said he had offset the damage caused to the environment by the two gas-guzzling flights on a £15m Cessna 680 Citation Sovereign jet by “making the appropriate contribution” to an ecological company called Carbon Footprint.

The return flight from Farnborough Airport in Southampton to Nice is estimated to have created a carbon footprint of around six tons, producing seven times more carbon emissions a person than a commercial flight. However, Carbon Footprint asks for a donation of only £6 a ton to “offset” harmful emissions. It means that Sir Elton could have paid as little as £36.

Parr added: “There’s no way any tech deals with the load of carbon dioxide you’ve released on a personal level. These are good schemes… but they’re not taking out carbon dioxide.