I don’t wish to seem puritanical, but I have just seen this news flash about Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week at which the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change and MP for Bexhill & Battle is hosting a meeting of “UK energy and finance leaders gathered in Abu Dhabi today to discuss ways to encourage greater private sector investment in renewable energy and low-carbon, climate friendly projects.”
I appreciate that overseas travel is a necessity if we are to be effective on the world stage, and that gathering leaders from around the UK is vital if we are to ensure that low-carbon industrial solutions are to be encouraged. However at the end of last year Gregs colleague Eric Pickles produced a guide entitled 50 Ways to Save, Examples of sensible savings in local Government and coming in at number 42 is an item Video conference instead of travel. My point is not specifically about the cost of Gregs flight to Abu Dhabi, although it is possible he did not fly standard class which would fall foul of Erics 40th tip which is Reduce first class travel. However my real point is how can we hope to reduce carbon footprints if the person who is heading up the issue for the Government travels 3,400 miles and takes a bunch of other people from the UK with him in order to meet and discuss low carbon activity?
ianchisnall 
Well Mr Pickles advice was only for “Local Government” wasn’t it. He never suggested that Ministers jollies to Abu Dhabi should be cut…
On a serious note, this does just highlight the trend of hypocrisy that seems to be endemic within the government.
– Times are tough… we are going to cut taxes for the rich and cap benefits for the working poor.
– Charities are doing great work… so we are going to cut their funding while increasing demand on their services.
Etc etc