Private flights, used by just 0.003 percent of the world’s population, are the most polluting form of transport. The researchers found that passengers in larger private jets caused more CO 2 emissions in an hour than the average person did in a year.

About a quarter million of the super wealthy — worth a total of $31 trillion — last year emitted 17.2 million tons (15.6 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide flying in private jets, according to Thursday's study in the Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment. That's about the same amount as the 67 million people who live in Tanzania,

Private jet emissions jumped 46 percent from 2019 to 2023 according to European research. Carbon pollution from private jets has soared in the past five years, with most of those small planes spewing more heat-trapping carbon dioxide in about two hours of flying than the average person does in about a year,