Environment Secretary George Eustice has said he would be taking the train to the COP26 summit as political leaders were accused of hypocrisy for flying to Glasgow.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he will fly home to London from Glasgow despite urging other world leaders to do more to tackle harmful emissions. US President Joe Biden has also faced criticism for arriving in Scotland on Air Force One before travelling to the conference centre in a large motorcade including the Presidential vehicle known as the ‘Beast’.
Mr Eustice defended the Prime Minister’s decision not to take the train home when he leaves the summit later on Tuesday, citing diary and security pressures, but added he and other ministers attending COP would be travelling by train.
“Obviously with the Prime Minister, there are different issues and considerations, pressures on his diary, security issues and all sorts of other things,” Mr Eustice told ITV’s Good Morning Britain. “I don’t make decisions about his travel arrangements but clearly it’s more complex for him than it is for me.”
The minister went on to confirm he would be using the train to get to Glasgow and back and said: “All other ministers are travelling by train to get there - that’s what we are encouraging all people to do.”
Asked earlier on Sky News about his own green credentials, Mr Eustice added that he doesn’t drive an electric vehicle and hasn’t yet installed a heat pump at his home. The government announced last month plans to offer grants to help 90,000 households install home heat pumps, and other low-carbon heating systems, over the next three years to cut Britain’s reliance on fossil fuel heating.
“I have got a small Mini that has a green mode on it but I don’t yet have an electric vehicle,” he said.
“I don’t have a heat pump at the moment but it’s certainly something that I would look at.
“I’m the same as many other people, we all want to do the right thing and make these changes, we need the technology to come forward, we need to set a trajectory, everybody wants to make these changes, sometimes the technology is not quite there yet but we are making progress in the right direction.”
