Can You Own a Private Jet If You Care About Climate Change?
From offsets to solar-powered planes, the options to lower the carbon footprint of personal air travel today range from easy to almost impossible.
For many people, private jets seem like an extravagance. But for busy executives and celebrities, the time savings, convenience, and extra security they offer make them more of a necessity.
Lately, however, they’ve come with an added cost: eco-guilt. Younger generations are putting pressure on their wealthy parents and grandparents to consider their family’s contribution to global warming, says Darren Kelland, who handles the affairs of ultrahigh-net-worth clients at Hawksford, a financial-services company based on Jersey, one of the U.K.’s Channel Islands. He recalls that one client’s daughter wouldn’t let her father purchase a private jet without a plan to offset its emissions.