UK minister in charge of climate summit criticised for taking 25 flights in three months

Photograph: Getty Images

The minister in charge of preparations for a UN climate summit has been criticised for travelling tens of thousands of miles by jet.

Alok Sharma had urged people to make "small changes in the way we go about our day-to-day lives" in order to cut their carbon emissions

But an analysis by the Daily Telegraph newspaper found that Mr Sharma took 25 flights in three months, travelling up to 73,853 miles between January 31 and May 12.

The newspaper estimates that the COP 26 president's travel had an environmental footprint equivalent to around 17 tonnes of carbon.

The government said that while online discussions could play a role, face-to-face meetings were key to the success of negotiations in preparation for the climate summit.

But one anonymous Conservative MP criticised the minister, branding him ‘air miles Alok’.

“This isn’t so much about preparing for COP 26, it is a bit more like a gap year. Why didn’t he go online? They held the G7 online," they told the paper.

COP 26 will be held in Glasgow in the first two weeks of November. The meeting is seen as a key date in the fight against climate change and will see countries upgrade their emissions reduction targets for the first time since COP21 in Paris.

Flying is very carbon-intensive. The UK’s Committee on Climate Change says that emissions accounted for 7 per cent of UK greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 and were 88 per cent above 1990 levels.

The advisory panel has recommended “reducing passenger demand for flying through carbon pricing, a frequent flyer levy, fuel duty, VAT or reforms to Air Passenger Duty, and/or restricting the availability of flights through management of airport capacity”.

Responding to the analysis, a government spokesman said: “Helping the world tackle the climate emergency is an international priority for the Government.

“Virtual meetings play an important role, however face-to-face meetings are key to success in the negotiations the UK is leading as hosts of COP26 and are crucial to understanding and seeing first-hand the opportunities and challenges other countries are facing in the fight against climate change.”