Letter from Spain #33
Private jets and COP28 ... plus TBC notes & research
Never missing a chance to fly by private jet, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez arrived at COP28 in Dubai on Thursday by way of an Airbus A310, the Spanish government’s Falcon 900 jet and a Super Puma helicopter. He then made a speech telling the public and private sectors to mitigate the effects of climate change. It was his second trip to the Middle East in less than a week, also using private jets - but more on Sánchez and his Falcon in a minute.
King Charles, Rishi Sunak and David Cameron travelled in three separate private jets from the UK to the same conference. That’s right … one jet each … although Sunak’s office has insisted that his own jet uses ‘sustainable aviation fuel’.
Apparently, 70,000 people are expected to turn up in Dubai over the next few weeks for COP28. Think about it. 70,000 people flying to an oil-rich country to talk about climate change. This is up from 49,704 at COP27 last year in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) and 38,457 at COP26 in Glasgow (Scotland).
At COP27 in Egypt last year, around 315 private jet journeys took place, according to a UCL study - and this is despite the fact that fewer world leaders attended, as many were busy flying private jets to a G20 summit in Bali. [By the way, I’m focusing on private jets, COPs and G20s this week, as it coincides with the chapter notes I’ve reached below on The Barcelona Connection, for those of you who are interested …]
For a journey from London to Dubai, private jet travel is 11 times more polluting than a commercial aircraft, 35 times more than train and 52 times more than coach travel - and of course a private jet can only accommodate a few ‘VIPs’.
In my research into all this, I discovered that the Conversation UK is compiling a report by a team of academic experts to estimate the carbon footprint of travel to this year’s COP28 in Dubai, for different modes of transport including private jets. The ultimate aim is to dissuade future climate conference attendees from using private jets, unless absolutely essential for security reasons. Good for them.
Which brings me back to Pedro Sánchez …
The main photo for this week’s letter is courtesy of Moncloa, (Spain’s 10 Downing Street or the White House). They kindly issued some photos to the media back in June 2018 of the Spanish prime minister wearing sunglasses - in a sort of James Bond or George Clooney pose - while travelling in a private aircraft on a trip to Brussels. Sánchez has been ridiculed ever since by most of the Spanish media, with regards his love of using the Falcon 900 private jet.
An analysis by Greenpeace showed that Spain occupied fourth place on the list of EU countries with the most flights made by private jets in 2022, with a total of 45,633 flights.
There’s a website - falcondespega.es - dedicated to monitoring all the trips of the Spanish government’s VIP planes - admittedly not just used by Sánchez but for military personnel, too. From my calculations, from 1 January 2023 until 30 November 2023, there have been 1,410 flights, emitting 27,960 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
It’s well reported that Sánchez uses his private fleet of planes for short trips, such as a trip of less than 45 minutes that he made to the Doñana Natural Park in Andalusia earlier this year to criticise the environmental policies of the right-wing opposition party, the PP, who are in government in that region. The trip could have been made by commercial flight, train or car, but Sánchez chose the Falcon, which not only emits the same amount of CO2 per flight hour as an average European citizen in three months, but the estimated cost of each flight hour is also €6,000. But, hey, it’s not his money.
In July 2018, Sánchez also came under fire for using the Falcon jet to fly himself 263 miles to see The Killers perform at a rock concert at the Benicàssim Festival.
He’d flown there - it’s held in Castellón, in the Valencia region - from Madrid for a 45 minute meeting with the Valencian regional president, a second get-together with Castellón council members … and then on to the concert. I think he was still wearing his sunglasses.
The Barcelona Connection - Research
In writing The Barcelona Connection, I combined a G20 taking place in Barcelona alongside a parallel UN Climate Change Conference - as this has happened in other cities, without it being the annual ‘COP’ event. A G20 often coincides with a COP, too - and in 2021, the G20 leaders meeting in Rome all flew immediately to the COP in Glasgow - so at least in my book I have them flying less!
In Chapters 48 and 51 the action moves to outside the Picasso Museum, where Elena is observing the G20 wives, trying to get Nicole to help her with her story …
She wondered why the press were so obsessed with the G20 spouses’ outfits, and what the spouse tour was really for, what it had to do with the millennium development goals, for example, like eradicating extreme poverty, or reducing child mortality, or helping to fight climate change. They’d all flown to Barcelona in private jets, the hypocrites …
Some photos below are from my research for where Séverin is standing, after watching the motorcade of G20 spouses being dropped off and guided inside the museum …
Séverin noticed that many of the press photographers, those without access to the museum, were being directed to the back entrance, to the Plaça de Jaume Sabartés, where there was more space. Each photographer then took up position behind a security barrier to take shots of the spouses once they emerged from the museum after their tour. A large crowd of on-lookers had also gathered there. Séverin nudged his way into the throng, as near to the front as he possibly could, blending in with the crowds as just another spectator. He watched … and he waited.
Next week I will also cover some notes on other VIP visits to museums in Spain, as well as the ‘art attacks’ …
Previous links to my research notes are here:
Chapter 39 and 42 in Letter from Spain #31 (Hotel Arts & Port Olímpic).
Chapter 36 in Letter from Spain #29 (Hotel Arts & Port Olímpic).
Chapter 29 in Letter from Spain #28 (Nîmes to Barcelona and tollgates).
Chapters 28 and 32 in Letter from Spain #27 (Pedralbes and Jaume, the Marquès de Guíxols).
Chapter 26 in Letter from Spain #26 (pijos and Beltrán Gómez de Longoria).
Chapter 25 (again) in Letter from Spain #25 (Benjamin’s thoughts on Púbol, Figueres and Port Lligat-Cadaqués).
Chapter 25 in Letter from Spain #23 (Benjamin and Elena on the Passeig Marítim).
Chapter 22 & Chapter 24 in Letter from Spain #22 (Plaça Sant Jaume & Nîmes).
Chapter 21 in Letter from Spain #21 (the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya - MNAC).
Chapter 18 in Letter from Spain #20 (Nîmes).
Chapter 16 in Letter from Spain #19 (Marta Soler visiting the offices of La Vanguardia).
Chapter 15 in Letter from Spain #18 (Sants, Les Corts and the Plaça de la Concòrdia).
Chapter 14 in Letter from Spain #17 (introducing Inspector Vizcaya and Marta Soler).
Chapter 13 in Letter from Spain #16 (the painting - the possible study of The Hallucinogenic Toreador by Salvador Dalí).
Chapters 10 and 12 in Letter from Spain #15 (Isabel Bosch and Lieutenant Trias).
Chapters 8 and 11 in Letter from Spain #14 (Benjamin at Girona Airport and finding the Marqueses’ home in La Bisbal).
Chapter 7 in Letter from Spain#12 (Séverin and Jürgen).
Chapter 5 in Letter from Spain#11 (Elena in Girona).
Chapters 3-4 in Letter from Spain#9 (Marcos Constantinos in Hampstead, plus Benjamin at the UEA & Stansted).
Chapter 2 in Letter from Spain#8 (the home of the Marqueses de Guíxols, not far from La Bisbal d’Empordà).
Chapter 1 in Letter from Spain#7 (Benjamin waking up at the service station).
The Barcelona Connection - Reviews, News & Events
Links to reviews & articles
A review of The Barcelona Connection by Michael Eaude has been published in the October edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
Here’s the link for a review of The Barcelona Connection by Dominic Begg that came out in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
You can also click here for the latest reviews on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads and at Barnes & Noble.
The book is available on Amazon or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from. It can also be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBN number: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
You can also click here for the Kindle edition of A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid.
For professional enquiries and foreign rights for The Barcelona Connection, please contact my agent Justyna Rzewuska at the Hanska Literary & Film Agency.