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50,000 people flew to COP30 to fight climate change. Here’s what that cost the planet. Let’s do the math on the carbon footprint of air travel to this year’s COP30 climate summit in Brazil: Estimated delegates: 50,000. Flight distances (round-trip): • Europe to Brazil: ~18,000 km. • North America to Brazil: ~16,000 km. • Asia to Brazil: ~30,000 km. • Africa to Brazil: ~14,000 km. • Latin America: ~6,000 km. Emission rate (economy class): 0.15 kg CO2 per passenger-km. Business class triples that, but let’s assume economy for now. Estimated totals: • Europe (15,000 people): ~40,500 tonnes. • North America (10,000): ~24,000 tonnes. • Asia (10,000): ~45,000 tonnes. • Africa (5,000): ~10,500 tonnes. • Latin America (10,000): ~9,000 tonnes. Total: ~129,000 tonnes of CO2 That’s just from the flights. Add business class and it’s easily over 150,000 tonnes. And yes, delegates did at least get to see Kylie Minogue perform at the Earthshot Prize announcement. This isn’t criticism. It’s perspective. Global climate collaboration matters. So does cutting emissions at the source. 🌱 If we’re going to fly to fight climate change, we should: • Remove what we emit; • Verify it with science; • And maybe skip business class next time. Let’s make the next COP lighter in every sense. Sources: UNFCCC COP attendance estimates: unfccc.int Earthshot Prize winners: earthshotprize.org/news/kylie-minogue-headlines-earthshot-prize-announcement-at-cop30 Measure your air travel carbon footprint in seconds with Tao Climate's FlyGuiltFree platform: FlyGuiltFree.com If you want to remove emissions like this with tech that actually works - and is tracked from space - reach out.