During the summer of 2022, numerous reports appeared on social media naming and shaming several French billionaires for their zealous, carbon-rich use of private jets.
It is a relatively simple process, once the aircraft’s registration number is known, to follow the flights on online open-source websites. On X, the former Twitter, an account called I Fly Bernard appeared, tracking the private flights of Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of luxury goods group LVMH and who, according to Forbes, is the world’s richest individual.
Regular monthly updates of the carbon footprints of various billionaires contributed to raising public awareness of the extravagant and avoidable travel by business jets at a time of hastening climate change, and when some of the pollution-belching aircraft belong to the owners of companies which boast of their green credentials. In February this year, several members of parliament from the EELV green party even proposed draft legislation to ban the use of private jets.
Among those who have been regularly tracked on social media, apart from Bernard Arnault, is François-Henri Pinault, the chairman and CEO of luxury and fashion goods group Kering. One of his more notable one-day excursions, reported on the I Fly Bernard account, was a three-leg journey from Paris to Rome, Rome to Saint Malo in Brittany, north-west France (for a stop of less than an hour), and Saint-Malo to Paris. In that whirlwind tour alone, his jet emitted as much carbon as the average French citizen is calculated as emitting over a period of two years.
But in the spring of this year, Pinault, 61, changed the registration details of his private jet, allowing him to disappear from the radar of public opinion.
However, Mémoire vive, a French collective association that investigates environmental and social issues using information from open sources, and which was behind the Instagram account, L’avion de Bernard, traced the new registration of Pinault’s Bombardier Global 7500. It is now based in Austria and operated by Swiss firm Sparfell. In Austria, only the operators of aircraft, and not their owners, are listed in the public domain.
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Since April, Pinault’s Bombardier has made more than 60 flights, covering a total distance of around 180,000 kilometres – equivalent to four and a half rotations around the Earth. While this summer was, worldwide, the hottest on record, the French billionaire’s plane emitted, over a period of just six months, 835 tonnes of CO2. That is equivalent to the carbon footprint of the average French citizen over a period of 84 years.
On May 1st this year, the tycoon flew in his jet to the Met Gala in New York, an annual fundraising fashion event that attracts society bigwigs worldwide and where Pinault was photographed and filmed in the company of his wife, the actress Salma Hayek.
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He also used his jet to travel to the Sun Valley Conference, held in the US state of Idaho, which he attended between July 11th and 14th. The annual gathering, organised by private investment firm Allen & Company, and nicknamed the “summer camp for billionaires”, brings together business leaders, tech firm executives, financiers and politicians. While Pinault was there he notably discussed his project to buy a majority stake in the Creative Artists Agency.
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But Pinault’s jet is not only used for globetrotting to glamourous events and to hobnob with the rich and powerful. He has also taken it to travel the short distance from Paris to Vatry, in the Marne département (county) east of the French capital, to visit the vineyards of the region, where he owns the prestigious Champagne house Jacquesson. The journey took just under 25 minutes.
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The flights by Pinault’s Bombardier underline the disproportionate impact that the super-rich have on climate change. In its 2022 annual report, the World Inequality Lab detailed that for France to reach its stated goal in emissions reduction by 2030, the 10% of the population who are the most wealthy must reduce the emissions they are responsible for by 61%, while the 50% of the population who represent the least wealthy would have to cut theirs by just 3%.
Meanwhile, Pinault’s intensive use of his Bombardier is in sharp contrast to his Kering group’s claims about its green credentials.
Fêted by some French media as a group that is concerned by climate change, Kering describes itself as “a pioneer in ecological transition among the luxury sector”. In 2019, Pinault, at the behest of French President Emmanuel Macron, launched the Fashion Pact, an international project to encourage the various actors of the fashion industry to make their activities compliant with “stopping global warming, restoring biodiversity and protecting the oceans”. Kering announced in March that it aimed to reduce its carbon footprint by 40% between now and 2035.
Kering did not reply to Mediapart’s request for comment before this article was first published in French on October 31st.
In September, Mediapart and Mémoire vive revealed that Pinault shared ownership of a luxury helicopter with Martin Bouygues, the chairman of the Bouygues group, whose activities include construction, engineering and telecoms. The two men used the Agusta AW-139 on journeys that could often have been completed by train. Since publication of that article, the helicopter has not been used.
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- The original French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Graham Tearse