A Government climate adviser – a member of the Climate Change Committee, no less – who backed a tax on frequent flyers has racked up 40,000 air miles in a year by jetting to environmental conferences. The Telegraph has the story.
Nigel Topping is one of the six members of Ed Miliband’s Climate Change Committee, which recommended in February that Ministers consider a new frequent flyer levy to cut emissions from flights.
The committee also suggested Ministers could increase air fares for holidaymakers by raising flight taxes and ban airline reward schemes. Its members, who report to the Government, have called for policies to “manage demand” among air passengers to cut carbon emissions.
But Telegraph analysis shows Mr Topping accrued 11 times more air miles in the last year than the average Briton, with travel to summits in high-end hotels on three continents. A former business champion for Glasgow’s COP26 summit, he now holds a variety of climate advisory roles.
In the last 12 months, he has attended conferences in Barbados, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the Netherlands and the US.
One summit, the International Mangrove Conservation and Restoration Conference in December, was held in the five-star Bab al-Qasr hotel in Abu Dhabi, with a private beach, infinity pool and chauffeur service.
It came days after Mr Topping’s trip to the UN’s desertification conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 3,000 miles from London. Last month, he attended another summit in Barbados, which involved an 8,400-mile round trip.
Speaking at the event, he revealed he had bought an electric car, and was building a “zero carbon house” with insulation, solar panels and a heat pump.
But according to modelling by the Department for Transport, which estimates that each kilometre of air travel emits 158g of carbon dioxide per passenger, Mr Topping’s carbon footprint from flights alone is about 40% more than the average British person produces in total in a year.
Andrew Bowie, the Shadow Energy Secretary, said: “This is rank hypocrisy. Once again we see those preaching this Mr Miliband-driven Net Zero zealotry are all too happy to impose significant burdens on others, but won’t practise what they preach.
“It’s one rule for them and another for everyone else. Kemi Badenoch and I have been clear that Net Zero by 2050 would involve significant cost to the country and to the consumer and it is simply not sustainable. It is a shame this Labour Government is still not prepared to do the same.”
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