Explainer-in-brief: World leaders, ranked by emission output
In a world where we strive to live more sustainably, you’d expect world leaders to lead the way. Unfortunately, it seems like they can’t give up their private jets. And those tend to produce quite a bit of Co2 emissions.
According to data from Pack & Send, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came in first place for how far he had flown, with 422,470 miles travelled. French President Emmanuel Macron won second place on 376,391 miles.
Our own Boris Johnson came in third – with 79,640 miles. This is the equivalent of going around the world three times over, the research says.
Since May, he’s been to Sweden, Finland, the UAE, Ukraine, Rwanda, Germany and Spain.
The prime minister might find international trips useful to shore up his image of statesmanship. But his penchant for running away from problems at home is costing our climate – his air mileage has produced 10,531 kg of CO2. To offset it, Johnson would have to plant 421 trees – and not ones with a £150,000 treehouse installed.