REVEALED: Bureaucrats Burn $226,000 on 400,000 Mile COP29 Junket

The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal through Official Information Act requests that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry for Primary Industries and the Ministry for the Environment sent 13 staff to the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Collectively, these departments spent $226,159 to cover the cost of the trip, including travel, accommodation and meals.

Taxpayers’ Union Investigations Coordinator Rhys Hurley said:

“Business class flights and tens of thousands spent on accommodation for a small group of officials is exactly the sort of extravagant spending these high-flying bureaucrats are getting too used to.”

“The irony is hard to miss: this supposedly ‘green’ gathering required 402,610 air miles of business-class travel, all to attend a climate change conference."

"Taxpayers will be left wondering why this couldn’t have been done over Zoom, like most of the other meetings these officials take while in the country.”

“New Zealand already has a world-leading Emissions Trading Scheme. Maybe it’s time for these staff to put down the suitcases and come into the office for a lesson or two.”