Federal officials and BC are keeping secret their budgets for travel, accommodation and hospitality at the United Nations climate change conference (COP 27) in Egypt. NDP Environment Minister George Hayman, Climate Action Secretariat Assistant Deputy Minister Jeremy Hewitt and a support staff member are attending the annual green festival Nov. 6-18, according to a prepared statement sent by David Carn of ministry. However, the official provisional list of UNO registrants shows two Heyman assistants, Danielle Monroe and Kelly Sather, signed up, but Karn did not elaborate by deadline. “Not contractors or [non-government organizations] are funded by the ministry to attend,” the ministry said. “The trip is financed by the ministry’s budget. The final cost will be released after all costs are tabulated.” Environment and Climate Change Canada spokeswoman Samantha Bayard said there are “approximately 335 members” in the Canadian delegation, including ministers, senators, opposition MPs, provincial and territorial politicians, business executives, union leaders and civil society representatives. citizens, indigenous and youth organizations. By comparison, Canada sent 277 people to the Glasgow conference. In a conference call from Egypt on Thursday, a reporter asked Liberal Environment Minister Stephen Gilboll to reveal the approved total budget for the entire federal government delegation and for his own travel and accommodations. “In terms of cost, as you know, all public dollars must be accounted for and disclosed in a very transparent manner,” Guilbeault said. “So I don’t have that information, but it will be released.” Guilbeault leads a delegation to Sharm El Sheikh with Canadian Climate Change Ambassador Catherine Stewart and chief negotiator Steven Kuhn. The registration list includes Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan, five MPs including Laurel Collins (NDP-Victoria) and Senators Mary Coyle, Patricia Bovey and Rosa Galvez. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not attending. Also registered are 11 deputy or assistant deputy ministers, 10 negotiators, eight communications/press/social media officers and seven policy analysts. Guilbeault was asked if the government’s strategic goals could be achieved with a smaller environment. “When it comes to the size of the delegation, these are complex issues. 195 countries participate in these processes,” he said. “I’ve talked about a few of the negotiating issues, but there are dozens of them. So we have to have the right people here in terms of the footprint of these meetings.” Bayard said the government was working with all delegates “to ensure that carbon emissions associated with travel to and from COP27 are offset”. According to Flight Free USA’s flight emissions calculator, the round-trip distance from Ottawa to the convention site in Egypt is 18,496 kilometers and causes the equivalent per passenger of 6.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions 2018 report stated that aviation emissions account for about 3.5% of total human-caused global warming. A World Resources Institute working paper on business travel and climate released in October 2021 said that, based on total emissions from 2018, air travel would rank as the world’s sixth-largest carbon emitter, between Japan and Germany . The UN COP 27 list said 33,449 people had registered to represent 195 states, 1,919 organizations and 1,306 media outlets in Egypt by November 6. Documents obtained under freedom of information relating to BC spending. at the 2021 UN climate conference in Glasgow showed Heyman and Sather booked $9,071 in airfare and accommodation four months in advance. They also arranged a car and driver at a cost of $450 to visit a railway station outside Glasgow where an electric train had been converted to hydrogen. The Freedom of Information disclosure also showed that a panel of eight bureaucrats, including Sutter and Hewitt, deliberated last fall on whether to answer a reporter’s questions about the budget for Heyman’s conference trip. After 10 days, they finally got comfortable on the line: “The trip is financed from the ministry’s budget. The final cost will be released after all costs are tabulated.” In addition to Canada’s core federal delegation, several other Canadian entities are registered at COP 27, including Climate Action Network Canada (22 delegates). University of BC (8); Canadian Nuclear Association (6); United Church of Canada and Climate Equity Reference Project Canada (five each). David Suzuki Foundation, Environmental Defense Canada, Canadian Federation of Agriculture and Canadian Foodgrains Bank Association Inc. (three each). Engineering Institute of Canada and Electricity Canada (two each). Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg has attended the previous two UN climate summits but is boycotting Egypt because of what she called “greenwashing, lies and deception”.
