Celebrities With Largest Carbon Imprints

People have carbon footprints, as do most human-made creations. Our annual carbon footprint is determined by the amount of greenhouse gases we produce. Individuals in the US are at the very high end of this spectrum, at 16 tons per year. Globally, the figure is closer to 5 or 7 tons. According to The Nature Conservancy, to have the best chance of avoiding a 2°C rise in global temperatures, the average global carbon footprint needs to drop to under 2 tons per year by 2050.

Reaching that 2-ton target would require a near-total change in human activity, particularly in developed nations. People would need to drive and fly considerably less, eat less red meat, and dry clothes without modern dryers. In the US, about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions come from cars and light trucks, so Americans would need to walk or bike far more than they do now.

There is no reliable way to calculate greenhouse gas emissions for those at the very top of the income pyramid. Climatecrisis247 has used data on private jet flights to estimate emissions for high-profile individuals — this is based on actual flight data rather than estimates.

Taylor Swift, one of the most successful performers in US history, tops most lists at around 8,000 tons. Leah Thomas, author of The Intersectional Environmentalist and a researcher on the intersection of environmentalism and privilege, recently told the BBC that Swift’s carbon emissions are extreme and are polluting the atmosphere. Yahoo reported that during a recent concert tour, Swift’s Dassault Falcon 7X flew 81 times, spending 169 hours airborne. The aircraft reportedly burned about 60,560 gallons of fuel and generated roughly 639 tons of carbon pollution.

Most lists of “celebrities” also include business leaders. Bill Gates, for example, gives more to environmental causes than almost anyone in the world, primarily through Breakthrough Energy and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. However, according to CBS, Gates has four private jets, a helicopter, and a seaplane — though CBS was not able to fully confirm all of this data.

The celebrities on these lists vary by year; ours reflects the most recent data available. Other lists have also included Alex Rodriguez, director Steven Spielberg, and Mark Wahlberg.

Another category of high emitters not included here — likely because their jets are owned by companies rather than individuals — is CEOs of large enterprises. Many corporate jets are used by senior executives for travel that isn’t strictly business-related. Among public companies, this information is disclosed to the SEC, but exact figures can be hard to find. As You Know, a nonprofit focused on shareholder advocacy research, notes that shareholders have some insight into corporate jet use through executive compensation disclosures in a company’s proxy statement — and that some of this use is for vacations.

Below is our list. It includes celebrities, their estimated annual private jet emissions, and how those emissions compare to those of an average American.

Rank	Celebrity	Estimated Annual CO₂ from Private Jets (tons)	Multiple of Average American
1	Taylor Swift	8,000+ (peak years)	150–250×
2	Travis Scott	3,000–11,000+	~0–200×
3	Kim Kardashian	3,000–4,000+	60–80×
4	Floyd Mayweather	2,000–7,000+	~0–140×
5	Jay-Z	2,000–7,000+	40–140×
6	Elon Musk	2,000–7,500+	40–180×
7	Drake	2,000–3,000+	~40–60×
8	Oprah Winfrey	2,000–3,500+	~40–70×