The Glasgow local weather summit final 12 months value taxpayers £250 million whereas rising the air miles flown by civil servants, it has emerged.
Official figures reveal the staggering quantity spent by the Authorities on internet hosting the Cop26 convention, together with employees, lodging and safety.
Prices for the two-week occasion totalled £290 million, however £40.5 million was acquired in sponsorship money, together with £3 million every from Microsoft, Nationwide Grid and NatWest.
The Cupboard Workplace’s annual report insists the UN summit was successful, bringing collectively 120 world leaders and 38,000 others to ‘sort out the pressing problem of local weather change’.
Pictured: Alok Sharma President of the Cop26 local weather summit raises his fingers after his speech of the closing plenary, through the Cop26 summit in Glasgow on November 13, 2021
It says that following ‘intense negotiations’ by local weather tsar Alok Sharma, 197 international locations agreed an ‘historic’ deal to cut back fossil fuels in addition to ‘unprecedented initiatives’ to halt deforestation and section out coal.
However the report additionally reveals that preparations for the convention, and the G7 world leaders’ summit in Cornwall earlier in 2021, ended up damaging the setting.
Whole greenhouse gasoline emissions by the Authorities elevated to six,442 tons of carbon dioxide equal (CO2e) in 2021-22, thrice the two,030 recorded through the earlier 12 months when journey was restricted by lockdown, but in addition greater than the 4,190 recorded earlier than the pandemic.
The report admits: ‘Emissions from home flights have elevated by 18 per cent. That is pushed by elevated journey to assist the profitable supply of the G7 summit and Cop26.’
Pictured: Alok Sharma President of the Cop26 local weather summit on the occasion in Glasgow
Cupboard ministers and civil servants flew 4 million miles to different international locations final 12 months. ‘Nearly all of worldwide journey supported the supply of the G7 summit and Cop26 agenda,’ says the report. Senior Tory MP Sir John Redwood stated: ‘I stated on the time that Cop26 needs to be held on-line. If you wish to lecture the remainder of the world on utilizing much less carbon, you need to lead by instance.’
He stated the price to the Authorities of internet hosting the Glasgow occasion was ‘extraordinary’, including: ‘It appears very excessive for a convention when one in all its goals was to save lots of the planet. It appears fairly wasteful.’
Final 12 months the Day by day Mail revealed that Mr Sharma had flown to greater than 30 international locations as he ready for the summit – and acquired a particular exemption from the resort quarantine guidelines in place on the time when he returned from Covid hotspots.
Information revealed yesterday exhibits that he continued his jet-setting lengthy after the Glasgow convention ended.
Mr Sharma flew to Turkey, India, Australia, Fiji and New Zealand in July this 12 months, Vietnam in August then Bali, the Netherlands and the US in September, at a value to taxpayers of £36,196. A Authorities spokesman stated: ‘In November 2021, throughout a worldwide pandemic, Glasgow hosted greater than 40,000 individuals for the Cop26 local weather change summit, the only largest international occasion the UK has ever hosted.
‘It was crucially essential that Cop26 was an inclusive summit, the place representatives from governments, civil society, younger individuals and companies might come collectively to take motion to guard our planet.’
The spokesman added: ‘The UK is proud to have hosted such an historic occasion, which culminated in almost 200 international locations forging the Glasgow Local weather Pact… reaching international settlement to speed up motion on local weather this decade.’
