Taylor Swift’s private jet targeted (but missed) by climate protesters in London

Climate protesters have bad blood with Taylor Swift’s private jet usage — and now, they’ve plotted an unsuccessful attempt to vandalize her vehicle. 

In a publicity-oriented act of protest, two activists from the climate justice group Just Stop Oil sprayed bright orange paint onto private jets at Stansted Airport in London. A post from the organization shows them breaking into the airport and blasting one jet with paint, with a caption stating that the protesters Jennifer and Cole “cut the fence into the private airfield at Stansted where Taylor Swift's jet is parked, demanding an emergency treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030.” 

Unfortunately for the protesters, Swift’s aircraft wasn’t on site at the time of the paint job, according to AP. 

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Swift for comment.

A post on Just Stop Oil’s website identified the protesters as Jennifer Kowalski and Cole Macdonald.

“Over the years, I’ve had to realise that even working in sustainability provides me with essentially no ability to make the necessary changes to prevent the complete collapse of our natural systems. I have to take desperate measures to make my voice heard,” Kowalski said. “In 2024 we all have to be considering what we can do each day to change the course our society is on. We need an emergency treaty to stop the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.”

“We’re living in two worlds: one where billionaires live in luxury, able to fly in private jets away from the other, where unlivable conditions are being imposed on countless millions” Macdonald said. “Meanwhile, this system that is allowing extreme wealth to be accrued by a few, to the detriment of everyone else, is destroying the conditions necessary to support human life in a rapidly accelerating never-ending ‘cruel summer’. Billionaires are not untouchable, climate breakdown will affect every single one of us.”

The Essex Police confirmed that law enforcement arrested two individuals — a 22-year-old woman from Brighton and a 28-year-old woman from Dumbarton — were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and interference with the use or operation of national infrastructure. The police received a call around 5:10 a.m. on Thursday and arrived minutes later to discover that the protesters had caused damage to two aircraft.

“We are not anti-protest but we will always take action where criminal acts take place,” Chief Superintendent Simon Anslow said in a press release. “We maintain a constant presence at the airport and this presence will be heightened over the summer period.”

Swift is set to perform three Eras Tour concerts on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at London’s Wembley Stadium. 

The singer’s private jet usage has been the subject of considerable controversy.  Marketing agency Yard estimated that Swift’s plane released over 8,000 metric tonnes (over 9,000 U.S. tons) of emissions in 2022 alone, which made her the #1 celebrity polluter in the agency’s research — her carbon footprint was over 1,000 times the average person’s that year. Swift’s rep challenged that narrative in a comment to Rolling Stone, noting that the singer regularly loans her aircraft to other people, so “To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”

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Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported that the “Fortnight” singer had threatened 21-year-old college student Jack Sweeney with legal action for posting information about her private jet usage on social media. 

Just Stop Oil protesters previously made headlines for throwing soup on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers and gluing themselves to other notable artworks in 2022. Earlier this week, the organization’s activists sprayed similar paint onto Stonehenge. The group’s goal is to pressure the United Kingdom government to “commit to working with other governments to agree an equitable plan to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030,” according to its website.