More than 700 private jets descended on the French Riviera for last year's Cannes Film Festival, consuming two million litres of aviation fuel while Europe grapples with energy shortages linked to agricultural disruptions and food security fears.
The flights, tracked by aviation monitoring groups, generated approximately 5,300 metric tons of CO2—equivalent to the annual emissions of 1,150 Europeans. As this year's festival approaches, climate justice advocates are intensifying calls for luxury emissions accountability, branding the concentration of private aviation "obscene inequality in the climate crisis."
The fuel consumption occurs against a backdrop of mounting food system vulnerability. Europe's agricultural sector faces escalating pressure from drought, extreme heat, and energy costs, with fuel scarcity driving fertilizer and transport price spikes that threaten harvests. The contrast—celebrity convenience burning fuel that could power agricultural operations—crystallizes the moral arithmetic of climate injustice.
"Two million litres of jet fuel for a film festival," says Magdalena Heuwieser, transport campaigner at the European Federation for Transport and Environment. "Meanwhile, farmers can't afford diesel for tractors, and we're watching crop yields decline from heat and drought. The luxury emissions of the few are directly connected to the food insecurity of the many."
Private aviation represents the most carbon-intensive form of transport per passenger, emitting up to 14 times more CO2 than commercial flights and 50 times more than trains. A single private jet flight from London to Cannes—approximately 90 minutes—produces two metric tons of CO2, equivalent to the total annual emissions of someone in or .
