Diljit Dosanjh: India's Taylor Swift?

Data on India's celebrity private jet emissions is sparse, yet the nation is beginning to climb the carbon nasties list

In 2023, the 34-year-old pop superstar Taylor Swift embarked on an ambitious 21-month-long world tour, spanning 151 shows across five continents. Swift’s tour is set to conclude in December 2024. It has collected over $1 billion — breaking the record for the highest-grossing tour of all time, according to Guinness World Records. The tour’s last concert was a sold-out show at the 55,000-seat National Stadium in Singapore (many of my Indian friends flew out to attend it) on March 9. Swift has been taking an extended break before her next concerts — all in Paris in May.

But this piece is not about her music. It is about Swift being named the “biggest celebrity CO2 polluter” in the world (followed by Floyd Mayweather and Jay-Z) after the social media account Celebrity Jets trailed many stars, including Kylie Jenner, Steven Spielberg and Drake. Taylor Swift’s private jet flights apparently produced 77.8342 tonnes of carbon dioxide between December 25 and January 30 alone. And that has ignited a huge global debate. Top carbon-emitting celebrities emit about 3,376 tonnes of CO2 each for their flights, compared to an average person’s total CO2 footprint of 7 tonnes per year. A London-to-Delhi private jet flight is 11 times more polluting than a regular commercial aircraft, 35 times more than a train, and a staggering 52 times more than a bus. While 90 minutes of flying in a typical private jet produces 3,583.38 kg of CO2 per passenger, a flight on a commercial airliner with 90 minutes of flying time produces 78.93 kg of CO2 per passenger. That’s the difference.

 Swift owns two different private jets: A Dassault Falcon7X and 900LX — one of which is for her concerts, and the other stays as a reserve at her base in Nashville. A study from Greenly provides data on her usage of the Falcon 900LX, her preferred private jet for long-distance travel. During the American leg of her tour lasting nearly a year, Swift travelled nearly 37,053 miles, generating 77.5 tonnes of CO2e over almost 113 flight hours. For her South American leg, the celebrated artist is believed to have emitted 61.6 tCO2e, having travelled 29,431 miles. Therefore, the Eras Tour has emitted 139 tonnes in CO2e emissions for 66,484 miles worth of travel for the North American and South American legs alone.

Swift has also flown to Asia and Australia for her world tour and still has the European leg to go. Swift also travelled 20,000 miles during the weekend of the Super Bowl to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce play. She made two round trips across the Pacific Ocean for the Japan and Australian legs of the Eras Tour. These staggering numbers are likely to continue this summer as the tour arrives in Europe. Much of the controversy over Swift’s private jet usage is due to what people deem as unnecessary travel.

Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather had a carbon footprint of 7,076.8 tonnes of CO2 from his private jet — 1,011 times that of any ordinary Joe. Television host Oprah Winfrey emitted 3,493.17 tonnes of CO2 from the 68 flights she took — 499 times more than an average person’s annual emissions. Elon Musk flies private jets more than any other businessman-billionaire — releasing over 2,000 tonnes of carbon emissions in his wake. Other biggies are not far behind.

There is not much data in the public domain on the carbon footprint of celebrity private jet owners in India. But India is starting to inch its way upwards on the carbon nasties list. Jamnagar’s tiny airport, which usually caters to about five civilian aircraft a day, handled about 600 flights during the five-day pre-wedding celebrations of Anant Ambani. India had never before witnessed such an extravaganza where the number of private jets at the event far exceeded all expectations and estimates. The sheer emissions triggered by the visiting celebrity guests would have been pretty mind-blowing.

There is a growing list of Indian celebrities who now own private jets (or so media reports would have us believe) — Ajay Devgn, Priyanka Chopra, Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, and a host of Southern stars — Ram Charan, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Allu Arjun. Pawan Kalyan and Junior NTR. And, of course, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni, Hardik Pandya and Kapil Dev also reportedly own jets. But it is songster Diljit Dosanjh (first singer to own a private jet) who is perhaps best positioned in India to challenge Taylor Swift’s carbon record with a Balle Balle world Tour. Touché.

The writer is chairman of Rediffusion