Do As We Say (Not As We Do)!

When flying, carbon dioxide emissions are maximal at take-off and landing. So, the emissions per passenger per mile are higher for short-haul, domestic flights than for longer trips. At the Cop26 meeting in Glasgow, the UK government lectured the world on its need to reduce carbon emissions to reduce the greenhouse effect on climate change. It has been revealed, however, that UK ministers and civil servants took nearly 107,000 short-haul, domestic flights last year (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/07/nearly-300-flights-within-uk-taken-by-government-staff-every-day). Cheap, domestic flights have been labelled by activists as a 'climate disaster'. The UK government has just reduced the duty on domestic flights, making them even cheaper. The nearly 300 flights per day taken by UK government staff, has actually doubled in a decade. Many of the destinations could have been reached by train (with greatly reduced emissions) in less than 5 hours. This seems to be yet another case of politicians talking the talk without walking the walk. Or, perhaps, making the walk doesn't apply to them?