Fury as Cameron and Sunak take separate planes to COP28 local weather summit
David Cameron and Rishi Sunak have come underneath hearth after it emerged they’d be jetting to Dubai on totally different planes – for a significant summit on local weather change.
The Tory duo are accused of “sending the wrong signals” to the remainder of the world forward of the Cop28 talks. They are a part of a UK delegation together with Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho – who MPs heard has already travelled to the United Arab Emirates – and the King.
All of them are taking totally different planes. Lib Dem local weather spokeswoman Wera Hobhouse stated: “Sunak and Cameron travelling to this vital summit in separate jets is not just a waste of taxpayers’ cash, it sends all the wrong signals about the UK’s climate commitments. The UK should be playing a leading role at COP28 and driving our planet forward to a cleaner future. Instead, this government is slashing net zero targets at home while taking polluting private flights abroad.”
A Downing Street spokesman stated: “We are not anti-flying. We do not seek to restrict the public from doing so and it’s important the UK has strong attendance at Cop28 given we continue to be a world leader in tackling climate change”.
It just isn’t clear who might be travelling on ‘Cam Force One’ – which had a £10million refit when the Foreign Secretary was PM. The Government spent the money refitting an RAF airplane in order that it might be utilized by VIPs. But he solely bought to fly on the plane throughout one journey as he attended a Nato summit in Warsaw, Poland, a couple of days earlier than he left No10 in July 2016.
The airplane is shared by senior Government ministers and members of the Royal Family.
It relies on an Airbus A330 with a firstclass cabin for the PM or main VIP on the flight, with membership class seating for enterprise delegates and standard financial system class seating on the rear, used usually by the Press. After Boris Johnson complained in regards to the gray plane being drab, £900,000 was spent portray it purple, white and blue so he might journey the globe within the colors of the Union Flag. An additional £800,000 was spent on giving a smaller Airbus A321 that the Government leases an identical paint job.
Both Mr Sunak and Lord Cameron will contact down with criticism ringing of their ears. In a blistering assault within the Commons, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas stated the UK is “way off track” for assembly its Net Zero commitments. And she lashed out at Mr Sunak’s choice to plough forward with new drilling within the North Sea, which has been broadly attacked by environmental teams.
Demanding new laws that do not quantity to “business as usual”, Ms Lucas stated: “”If this Government is critical about main by instance will they now lastly reverse the greenlighting of the obscene Rosebank oil area?”
The Government approved oil extraction 80 miles off the Shetland coast in September. The former Green leader pointed out that the Climate Change Committee said the UK isn’t on track to meet emissions targets by 2030.
She told energy minister Amanda Solloway: “She will know targets with out plans are low cost.” Ms Solloway shot back: “This Government does take this extremely critically, there are two approach of demonstrating that; one is that the minister who normally offers with that is really prepared at Cop28 for Cop28 and likewise we now have a definite division for this very nature, which is the Department for Net Zero and Energy Security.”
* Follow Mirror Politics on Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitter and Facebook.
