This claim is true. Carbon Credits is the article cited which is one of the top sources for carbon news, pricing and opportunities. The author of the article, Jennifer L., has written 705 articles on this site. She is a journalist who focuses on environmental sustainability and carbon credits. She seems to be a reliable source.
The article said, "Swift is the world's most carbon polluting celebrity of 2022." Since January of that year, Swift has flown "170 times" with emissions totaling over 8,293 tons. This is where the claim on News Detective came from. The article goes on to note that a private jet emits two metric tons of carbon dioxide per hour per person. A U.S. domestic flight releases 0.04 tons. This data, from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, shows how they calculated Swift's total carbon emissions.
I looked up this claim on Google and found another article on Swift's carbon emissions published by The Associated Press. The article mentions that this topic became trending after Yard, a U.K. based sustainability marketing agency, published a list of celebrity carbon emissions. The Yard article was published on July 29, 2022 by their digital PR team. At the beginning it states, "Yard's team is aware that this list is not conclusive to the biggest offenders, but the biggest offenders according to the data as presented on the CelebrityJets Twitter page...whilst there is no way to determine if these celebrities were on all the recorded flights the purpose of this study is to highlight the damaging impact of private jet usage." The Associated Press noted that the Yard article is not peer-reviewed either. The Yard article lists Swift as the top celebrity contributor.
I then went to the CelebrityJets Twitter page but it has been suspended. Yard noted that CelebrityJets pull their data from ADS-B Exchange, the world's largest source of unfiltered flight data. I visited this site and found it collects data from radio signals transmitted from aircrafts. This is how CelebrityJets was able to track the flight of Swift and other celebrities. This data is public information. ADS-B Exchange notes their goal is to "bring transparency and inclusivity to the world of aviation." Their main reasonings behind publishing this information is for public awareness, improving safety measures, research purposes and emergency response efforts. They seem very reliable.
This claim is true because with the flight information provided by ADS-B Exchange, one can calculate how much carbon emissions private jets emit based off the data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Swift emerges as the top celebrity contributor. The claim should add this is for 2022.