Disney has launched a 24-day, US$110,000 all-in-one elite tour package that comes with 6.2 tonnes of carbon emissions for each customer, 20 times more than a person’s carbon emissions in a low-income country in a year.
The “bucket list adventure” tour, which is limited to 75 guests, visits twelve Disney resorts across six countries. Customers will travel on a VIP Boeing 757 with Disney staff providing service along the trip.
The trip will depart from Los Angeles, California on July 9, 2023, and then they will fly to San Francisco, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong, then Agra in India, Cairo, Paris, then finish in Orlando, Florida. The tour is sold out.
According to an analysis from the clean transportation group Transport & Environment (T&E), the jet fuel used to fly for the entire 19,600-mile (31,500-km) journey would emit 462 tonnes of carbon dioxide, or 6.2 tonnes for each paying guest, which is more than most people in the world account for in a full year.
Jo Dardenne, the aviation director at T&E, said that the ticket price can’t reflect the serious pollution of the tour and the expensive trip once again shows how unjust air travel is than any other transportation mode, since only small amounts of individuals are privileged to fly, and they could explode their annual carbon footprints with just one such holiday.
However, according to report from the Guardian, a Disney spokesperson explained that the company would track the emissions from the tour and offset them with “investments in high-quality, certified natural climate solutions” that would “result in verified emissions reductions.”
“Our investments in these projects also prioritize providing co-benefits like conserving habitat for wildlife, creating jobs, protecting water resources, and reducing impacts from floods and soil erosion,” the spokesperson said.
The data from World Bank shows that the average annual carbon emissions per person in a low-income nation were 0.3 tonnes in 2019 while the average annual carbon footprint per person was 4.5 tonnes worldwide. By 2030, every person on Earth can only emit an average of 2.3 tonnes of CO2 annually, if the world is to achieve the target of staying under 1.5C of global warming.
