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Labour climate envoy racks up 76,000 air miles in eight months
Labour's climate envoy has billed the taxpayer for flying the equivalent of three times the circumference of the Earth, The Telegraph can reveal.
Rachel Kyte travelled by aeroplane on more than a dozen trips since becoming the Government's top diplomat for net zero in September, despite admitting her carbon footprint was 'a source of deep discomfort'.
The majority of Ms Kyte's flights were business class and have cost taxpayers a total of £38,769, according to a Freedom of Information request made by this newspaper.
When the distances of every leg of Ms Kyte's travel – all of which was on official business – are added up it equates to a little under 76,000 miles, according to website Air Miles Calculator, roughly three times the length of the equator.
The busy travel itinerary, which saw the 60-year-old visit a foreign country every month between October and May, means her personal carbon footprint for the air travel could be as much as 15 metric tonnes of CO2, a carbon-tracking formula used by online database Earth911 suggests.
Ms Kyte has previously spoken of air travel's negative impact on the environment and said that partly as a result she has felt personally conflicted about flying at times.
In an interview with The New Statesman in 2021, Ms Kyte said: 'Having worked internationally for years, and with family on the other side of the Atlantic and friends spread across the world, the carbon footprint wrapped up in my social and professional identity is a source of deep discomfort.'
In an interview with the Cleaning up Podcast in 2020, Ms Kyte said of her career: 'For a long time, I had been on a plane every Sunday night and on a plane many days during the week and I have to say I had angst about that kind of flying from a climate perspective.'
She added that frequent flying also made it difficult to balance family life with work. There is no suggestion the academic, who is also a professor at Oxford University, has done anything wrong.
Labour unveiled Ms Kyte as Britain's new special representative for climate in September. The post was previously vacant for more than a year after being axed by Rishi Sunak in 2023.
The Government's website says Ms Kyte's objectives are to 'deepen and progress international climate partnerships' and 'drive for results in the clean energy transition and green and inclusive growth'.
Ms Kyte racked up expenses for 16 journeys since October, flying business class on 12 occasions and economy class on 11.
Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, said: 'The climate envoy is more like a travel writer travelling around the world to exotic locations.'
It comes after David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, was embroiled in a hypocrisy row after his air travel bill rose to £1.2m between October and December last year.
In January, Ms Kyte travelled on a return business class flight from London to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to 'unlock private sector investment in renewable energy' through her attendance at the Africa Energy Summit, at a cost of £6,040 to taxpayers.
A one-way business class flight that took Ms Kyte from Boston in the US to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to attend the COP16 conference in December cost £5,436. Another one-way business class flight took Ms Kyte from Washington DC to London in April, costing £5,129.
A further journey saw Ms Kyte fly business class from London to Hanoi, Vietnam, last month, returning via Jakarta, Indonesia, on tickets that cost £4,559. On the trip she visited Singapore using economy class flights, which together cost £578.
In Singapore she spoke at climate events including Ecosperity Week and the GenZero Climate Summit and met with government representatives to 'deepen collaboration on areas such as energy connectivity and carbon markets'.
Other destinations on Ms Kyte's itinerary since becoming climate envoy include Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Baku in Azerbaijan, New Dheli and Rome.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'The Special Representative for Climate was appointed specifically to support ministers in driving action on this government's strategic priorities on international climate action and energy policy. Her international diplomacy has supported efforts to unlock more private finance to tackle the climate crisis and taken forward our mission to be a clean energy superpower. All travel has complied with internal travel policies.
'All FCDO travel is undertaken using the most efficient and cost-effective travel arrangements. Travel plans are decided with consideration of the best use of time and in the interests of the taxpayer.'
