The Department for Energy Climate Change is a major British Government Department that has a declared aim to tackle global warming.
However, the Department has increased the money spent on air travel for its ministers and civil servants every year for the past three years, with a total hitting a whopping £3.3 million. The destinations included Doha where there was a climate change conference… ok it may take a lot longer to go by sea and be impractical, but what about UK destinations where there’s no excuse for avoiding air travel? No. Half of a million pounds was spent in 2012 on domestic flights. So much for fighting to reduce the carbon footprint!
The figures were only unveiled in response to a parliamentary question from Luciana Berger, the shadow climate change minister, pictured above, who said it “beggars belief” that the government department were jetting people domestically and internationally while boasting that they are leading the fight against global warming. The flights were, as one may expect, not economy class. £684k was spent on Business Class flights and £1.3k on First Class Tickets.
Unsurprisingly criticism of this profligacy were legion. Not least from the Chief Scientist at Greenpeace UK, Dr Parr, who said:
“The responsibility of the DECC is to reduce UK carbon emissions. It is understandable that ministers and their advisers may at times need to travel internationally for meetings and conferences. However there are those that may wonder why there have been so many domestic flights when there are efficient and lower-carbon methods of transport available in the UK”.
A spokesperson for the DECC defended the figures saying that travel was crucial to spread the message, negotiate and contribute to international efforts to reduce carbon emissions and sometimes flights are necessary. She added that the number of flights are kept to a minimum.
One wonders whether any of those from the Department had any pangs of conscience looking down from their jets onto wind farms below….
