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The government’s air miles soared by one million last year, as they spent an extra £900,000 on flights, despite claiming to be “committed” to reducing their carbon footprint.
In 2017, the total air miles for government officials totalled 3.5million, but this jumped up by an extra million the following year.
The figures come as part of a ‘Sustainability Report' featuring as part of the government's 2018 Accounts, which were released last week.
The 302-page document, which showed that the government overspent its budgets by £7million and it could be heading for a bigger deficit if that trend isn’t bucked, and revealed details of golden handshakes for senior civil servants, also acts as an Annual Report for the Government of Jersey.
From being in ‘the red’ or ‘the black’ and now the matter of ‘green thinking’, the report makes for colourful reading.
Pictured: The government ended 2018 with a £7million overspend.
On the environmental side of things, the ‘sustainability’ section of the report assures the reader that the government is “committed to reducing the environmental impacts caused by the day to day operations of our services and activities.”
However, it’s clear from the figures that the government hasn’t managed to reduce its carbon footprint when it comes to air travel, with the amount of miles travelled by plane increasing from 3.5million in 2017 to 4.5million in 2018 – an increase of 1.2million on 2016’s total.
Pictured: The Government is travelling more by air than they have in two years.
As well as costing the taxpayer an extra £900,000, these flights – which include those booked by all government departments, Andium Homes and the Ports of Jersey – signify the equivalent of putting 1.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
But, back on land, how ‘green’ is our government, really? Express digs into the figures…
2018 saw the government spend £10.8million on energy in total, which includes electricity, gas, heating oil and fuel for their fleet of vehicles.
Broadly speaking, it has managed to cut down on crucial areas of energy consumption in terms of usage, reducing electricity consumption by 21.6million of kilowatt hours between 2016 and 2018, and cutting down on their fleet vehicle fuel by 160,000 litres.
Pictured: The States spent £10.8million on energy in 2018.
However, emissions are steadily increasing, with the government having produced the equivalent of 19.9kilotonnes of CO2 in 2018 from energy consumption.
Where water’s concerned, the government spent £2million on 793,000 cubic metres of water - a significant increase from 2016 where they only used 596,000 cubic metres.
Pictured: Government water usage is the highest its been since 2016.
The government also cut down on the paper purchased on contract by 4,000 reams, and is steadily increasing the percentage of recycled paper purchased by 6% between 2017 and 2018.
Amid all these figures, the report makes mention of the fact that the government “only buys recycled paper, Fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar and other environmental products” - but with the added caveat “where possible.”
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