Rachel Kyte’s £100,000 travel bill prompts scrutiny as climate official flies six times around the globe
Rachel Kyte has accumulated over 150,000 air miles in a year with trips to conferences such as COP30, Africa Energy Indaba Week in South Africa, and Clean Cooking Dialogue in Riyadh, at a cost of over £100,000.
The Government is under pressure to justify the taxpayer-funded 157,314 air miles of their ‘Climate tsar’ during her first year in the role. A combined total of six times the equatorial circumference of the earth.
Rachel Kyte was appointed as the UK’s Special Representative for Climate in October 2024 and reports to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, as well as the Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper.
She previously attracted controversy after wearing a badge with Extinction Rebellion’s logo at the 2018 COP24 conference in Poland, and a year later praised activist Farhana Yamin who glued herself to the forecourt of Shell’s London headquarters.
A freedom of information request from LBC also reveals that the majority of the flights have been business class, with 28 legs in that category. There were 21 Economy legs, and one in Premium Economy.
The most expensive journey leg was on 19th October 2025 when Ms. Kyte billed taxpayers £6,136 for a one-way business class trip from Boston to Hainan to attend the “7th Friends of the Paris Agreement” and engage in “high level dialogue”.
Similarly, in February 2024 a business class return trip from London to Dar-es-Salaam to attend the “Mission 300 - Africa Energy Summit” cost £6,040.26.
In total, the international trips from 21st October 2024 until 25th October 2025 have cost taxpayers a combined total of £104,804.65, with flights, accommodation, and other expenses included. Over 80% of that total was spent on flights.
Conservative Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho branded the revelations as “yet more Labour hypocrisy”.
The Tory MP told LBC “this is yet more moral lecturing on standards which they are not upholding themselves”.
A government spokesperson said that “the Special Representative for Climate was appointed to support Ministers in driving action on the government’s priorities on international climate action and energy policy”. They added that “international diplomacy has supported efforts to unlock more private finance to tackle the climate crisis and taken forward our mission to become a clean energy superpower”.
A source within the government insisted that the envoy “only flies when she must and takes other forms of transport wherever possible in line with government policy”.
They added that all of the arrangements were compliant within current travel policies and maintained that the nature of the role “requires face-to-face engagement” with leaders and stakeholders.
Deputy Editor
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