Wales' outgoing Future Generations Commissioner Sophie Howe racked up over 100,000 air miles during her seven years in the role. Ms Howe jetted off to international gatherings in places like Paris, New York, Hamburg, Vienna, Toronto and Oslo.
Ms Howe, whose role is to hold public bodies and politicians and the long-term impact their decisions have to account, and who recently said there should be a frequent flyer "supertax", has taken 50 flights since she took the job in 2016. Opposition parties have labelled the trips "blatant hypocrisy".
Other destinations included the South Korean capital of Seoul, Sharm el Sheik in Egypt and the World Government Summit in Dubai. If you include the flights of her support staff there were 86 flights, adding up 160,000 miles and 44 tonnes of CO2.
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The data was gathered through a Freedom of Information Office. The Future Generations Commissioner's (FGC) office has said that Ms Howe only uses air travel as a "last resort" as well as pointing out that many of the trips were not funded by the Welsh taxpayer and that "off-set" the carbon emitted.
The key takeaways from the data are:
- Discounting the period from March 2020 to October 2021 when no flights were taken (presumably due to Covid), Ms Howe averaged nine flights a year.
- Including staff there were over 15 flights a year. This is more than a flight a month.
- In total over £10,000 of taxpayers money was spent on flights for the commissioner and staff.
- Overall the flights emitted 44 tonnes of CO2 (28 for the FGC and 15 for staff).
This map shows some of the locations where Sophie Howe visited while undertaking her role:
Ms Howe has been vocal in the need to combat global warming which all credible experts agree is manmade and will cause immense levels of suffering around the world. Recently on Twitter commenting about the Welsh Government plan to limit road building she said: "This is the time to decide whether we are really committed to modal modal shift and taking the brave & sometimes unpopular decisions to reach net zero. Roads = more cars. Cars = more carbon. More carbon = dead planet."
Commenting on the figures, Welsh Tory shadow minister for social partnership, Joel James MS said: “This is blatant hypocrisy from the Commissioner who believes that there should be a frequent flyers super tax. Once again, it’s one rule for Labour and their friends and another for the people of Wales.
“Instead of focusing on solving the long-term problems faced by ordinary people, the Commissioner wants to use Wales as a left-wing petri dish pushing a four-day working week, a basic income pilot and freezing road building damaging the prospects of the Welsh economy. All the time complaining her budget isn’t big enough!
“What people want to know is how jetting off to various places is convincing the Labour Government to reverse its real terms cut to the education budget, which will impact future generations the most."
The Office for the Future Generations Commissioner, which has a budget of about £1.5m, sent a detailed defence of their flight usage. In a statement they said: "We aim to walk the talk of the Well-being of Future Generations Act which requires public bodies in Wales to contribute to the well-being goals and think about the long-term impact of their decisions in many areas including transport and climate change."
They pointed to the Equality and Social Justice Committee, Senedd, which said in April 2022: “The Commissioner's unique role is internationally admired and recognised as a world first. It is vital therefore that we in Wales capitalise upon this international renown and use the role and office to its maximum potential.”
Their statement went on to say that the travel was a vital part of promoting "Brand Wales which we are proud to celebrate, and it is agreed with the Welsh Government that we should attend certain international events as part of their promotion of the Act, good practice from Wales and our work. They provide funding for some our international work including the travel.
"We follow the hierarchy of transport in the national policy. When possible, the Commissioner and her staff will take other forms of active travel, public transport or use her electric car as a last resort. For example, for attendance at COP26 in Edinburgh, the Commissioner and her team travelled by train and bus. To enable this, we have different schemes and policies available to all our staff which include a Cycle to Work Scheme, access to an ULEV scheme, Cardiff Bus discount, Interest Free Loans and we have signed up to the Staff Healthy Travel Charter since 2019. We are now the first organisation in Wales to sign up to the Healthy Travel Charter Level 2.
"We are committed to use air travel only when alternative transport is not possible and when diary commitments and time pressures make it impossible to use alternatives. The office also operates a longstanding ‘Anytime Anywhere working’ policy. This reduces the need to travel unnecessarily and supports work life balance and allowed us to adapt to home working as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
"Where possible, virtual, or digital attendance is requested and the Commissioner has successfully participated in a wide range of conferences and events this way, including conferences in Azerbaijan, India, Germany and Canada.
"Since 2018, also to walk the talk, with the agreement of the Welsh Government, we have offset our residual carbon emissions including those related to air travel by making contributions to the Size of Wales and The Woodland Trust. This, among other initiatives to reduce our carbon emissions such as being paperless and signing up to the Healthy Travel Charter aiming for our office to be carbon-neutral. For example, using our ULEV scheme the Commissioner and 2 members of staff have saved a collective 5,604 kg of carbon emissions in the last few years."
What does "off setting" actually mean?
The FGC's office provided details of the amount of money they were providing to the charities Size of Wales and Woodland Trust. It added up to £200 a year. You can see the figures below:
Ms Howe will soon be leaving her role and will be replaced by Derek Walker who will be only Wales' second Future Generations Commissioner. The job was advertised with a salary range of £90-95,000 per year plus "reasonable expenses".
The Welsh Government declined to comment.
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