Andy Burnham’s ‘climate tsar’ Rachel Kyte has racked up 250,000 air miles on taxpayer-funded flights – including business-class trips to Rio de Janeiro, Seoul and Barbados – at a cost of £107,000 in under two years. Conservative MP Greg Smith has demanded Burnham sack her and abolish the £130,000-a-year role entirely. The the Mail has the story:
Andy Burnham is under mounting pressure to sack his ‘climate tsar’ after she racked up more than enough ‘air miles’ to get to the Moon.
The the Mail can reveal Rachel Kyte has clocked up 250,000 miles worth of official flights in less than two years in the job – and that includes business-class trips to glamorous locations such as Rio de Janeiro, Seoul and Barbados.
On Saturday, the Prime Minister faced calls to cut the climate tsar’s air mileage or get rid of her.
Conservative MP Greg Smith told The the Mail: “Rachel Kyte’s jet-setting lifestyle is a slap in the face to taxpayers.
“The fact this so-called ‘climate tsar’ regularly does 10,000-mile round trips – often in business-class – to eco conferences is outrageous. If she had any shame she would resign. If not, Andy Burnham should sack her and abolish the role for good.”
Ms Kyte, a one-time fan of environmental group Extinction Rebellion, came under fire in June last year for running up 75,000 air miles since she became the UK’s Special Representative for Climate in September 2024.
However, fresh Freedom of Information requests show that she has now done 250,000 air miles in the job, enough to circumnavigate the globe ten times.
This has come at a total cost to the taxpayer of £107,000, a figure that does not include hotel bills.
She flew to Colombia for the ‘Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels’ conference in April – a 10,000-mile round trip branded “beyond a joke” by her critics.
This came immediately after a £10,000 business-class jaunt to Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo. This year alone, Ms Kyte has already spent more than £31,000 on over 20 flights, the majority in business class.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) considers these expenses “cost-effective” and “in the interests of taxpayers”. But according to climate-protection organisation myclimate.org, Ms Kyte would have burned 100 tons of CO2 on her flights – ten times the average person’s annual emissions.
It would take you 27 years to rack up the equivalent emissions driving a Range Rover.
The £130,000-a-year climate representative role was brought back by Labour after it was abolished by the Tories in 2023.
Ms Kyte, an academic, has previously spoken of air travel’s negative impact on the environment.
In a New Statesman interview in 2021, she admitted that “the carbon footprint wrapped up in my social and professional identity is a source of deep discomfort”.
Worth reading in full.
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Unbelievable hypocrisy. Oh ….. hang on a minute; she (he?) is working for a Liebour Gummerment, so it’s totally believable after all.
We shouldn’t make assumptions… but she’s a lesbian right?
Her carbon footprint is a cause of deep discomfort to her, is it? It looks as though she’s turned to pies for solace.
Seriously, though, this sort of story isn’t really news anymore, and that’s the saddest aspect of this sorry tale. Hypocrisy among ministers is so common that we’re becoming desensitised to it.
It is obscene.
A drop in the ocean. Might want to tackle the fraud taking place throughout the welfare system. If a climate czar can’t even follow his/her own advice, well that says everything.
£xcess baggage🤔
Indeed. And at so many levels.
That’s Elton John surely?
Stephen Fry?
Never mind the czar… we’re currently getting 30% of our electricity from gas, another 30% from Nuclear/Biomass and a final 30% from interconnectors.
The much lauded ‘renewables’ are providing just under 9% and, at £166/mWh the price is just over double the year’s average.
And, as it happens, we’re currently getting no electricity at all, being in the middle of a power cut… 🙄
MODERATOR HERE
In the interest of balanced debate the website ‘National Grid Live’ can produce percentage figures by source of electricity generation for periods ranging from Live to a Year or longer. The figures you quote belong in the former category, not the long term pattern
In response to the moderator, I would point out that the “live” performance is really what matters at any particular point in time. It’s all very well saying something like “renewables generated 40% of our electricity last year” (just plucking a random figure out of the air), but if there’s no power because instability has caused the power grid to collapse, that’s little comfort there and then.
MODERATOR HERE
No disagreement with that, dispatchable power is the key requirement, and lack of it will cause a system collapse one day. However, I look at NG Live website at some point most days, and I don’t think I have ever seen Interconnectors providing anywhere near 30%. Maybe they could get that high for a very exceptional, short period, but the NG website shows that the long term percentage obtained via Interconnectors is around 12%.
Over the past year, apart from Interconnectors the percentage of our electricity supply is as follows: Gas 27, Solar 7, Wind 35, hydro 1, nukes 12, and biomass [i.e.Drax] 7. Renewables [in the modern sense] are therefore 42%
Who ate all the pies ?
I thought it was Simon Jordan when I saw photo
Why do we need a climate Tsar?. They cannot change the climate. This is a whipped cream job, its unnecessary, as I suspect are many others, we cannot afford this sort of nonsense. Get rid and don’t replace.
“Climate Tsar” – what next? How about a “Tides Tsar” based of course up north in Knut-sford
I am waiting for the wildfire tsar.
The wildfires seem to be doing fine on their own already without adding more ‘rewilding’ or management neglect.
Wrong advice. Abolish the role and all support staff.
Andy Burnham’s ‘climate tsar’ Rachel Kyte:
In Russian, the word tsar means emperor or king, referring to a supreme ruler or monarch – in other words a dictator.
The word tsar derives from the Latin family name Caesar, which evolved into a royal title meaning emperor, originally the cognomen of Julius Caesar, later adopted as a standard title for Roman emperors.
So we have Communists using imperial Roman/Russian job titles, that imply supreme ruler.
Also, what the F is a ‘Climate Tsar’?
It’s someone who flies around the world on taxpayer-funded jollies.
Kaiserin too. Meaning empress, so colonialist.
I utterly detest these parasites and their taxpayer funded, long haul, business class, 4 star hotel hypocritical jollies, however at the risk of being pedantic, Carbon Dioxide is not burned, it is what is produced, along with water when aviation, or any other carbon based fuel is burned in oxygen. It is also plant food, and the more they get, the better they do, thus providing food for every other living thing higher up the food pyramid. Is that a pig with lipstick? It will be comfortable with its snout in the trough then, eating carbon dioxide derived food
Humbug. Grifter.
And we get to pay for it.
I am outraged but not surprised by this story. My biggest problem is, though, that the photograph seems to be Andy Burnham in a blond wig.
I thought it was Elton John without his makeup.
Andy and Rachel (Ye gods! Another one.) have never been seen in the same room together.
You may be on to something.
I glanced and thought it was another trans piece before reading the word ‘climate’ in the strapline
He can identify as whoever he wants.
She went to the ‘Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels’ conference. She appears to have done a bit of transitioning hiself. – perhaps a DEI hire.
I thought that too, It does look like Burnham, perhaps he is Moonlighting.
Hold on. Who is this fat piece of shite?! Was she part of the cabinet before hand? Is she just an MP? For 2 years she’s been going around the globe on our dime, but she’s a total no-name!
Who else do they have globetrotting or otherwise pissing away our money behind the scenes?!
They don’t worry about it being behind the scenes any more, hence £millions sent to Pakistan even though they won’t accept their own criminal diaspora back. In this case, I think it is spelt “Shyte”
From https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/people/rachel-kyte-0
Rachel served as special representative of the UN secretary-general and chief executive officer of Sustainable Development for All (SEforALL). She previously was the World Bank Group vice president and special envoy for climate change, leading action on climate finance in the run-up to the Paris Agreement. Rachel served as an advisor to the UN secretary-general on climate action and the crisis response to the invasion of Ukraine, chaired the Rwandan Green Fund (FONERWA) and advised the UK government on COP26.
Sustainable Development for All, but not for Me !
Her career history is closely allied with the Current Thing. Her association with Rwanda re-inforces my suspicion that Rwanda is a UK money laundering conduit
Cut funding for the World Bank (sic) and all other international agencies which promote anything extraneous to their proper role.
The World Bank is there to assist third world countries develop. The method is simple: ready access to fair legal systems, property rights and open markets.
She is the embodiment of UN Agendas 2030 and 2050 which are intrinsic to her existence. Her integrity and conviction are reflected in her behaviour which takes hypocrisy to a whole new level. UN Utopia is the road to hell.
Has she ever had to work for a living?
Looking at the size of her – No.
It’s a functionary job, to enable the system
I thought it was the pompous leftie twat Stephen Fry in glasses at first.
“Conservative MP Greg Smith has demanded Burnham sack her and abolish the £130,000-a-year role entirely”
This post was possibly created as a response to his fake Conservative Party’s obsession with Net Zero 2050 target.
Did Gregg Smith call for his own leader (Johnson) to be sacked for his inanities?