EXCLUSIVE Globetrotting Labour mayor runs up 22,500 air miles in just THREE MONTHS – all the while lecturing about the need to tackle climate change

• Marvin Rees has visited the US, France , Rwanda and Dubai since September 

A globetrotting Labour mayor has clocked up 22,500 air miles in three months while lecturing about the need to tackle climate change.

Bristol’s mayor Marvin Rees has visited the US, France, Rwanda and Dubai since September, in a hectic travel schedule that has involved seven separate flights, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Mr Rees tonight faced accusations of double standards after it emerged that he spoke about how cities can cut emissions during a five-day visit to the US in September and during a trip to the COP28 UN climate-change conference in Dubai earlier this month.

Last year he introduced a Clean Air Zone in Bristol under which non-compliant cars face a £9 daily charge. ‘It smacks of hypocrisy,’ Councillor Mark Weston, leader of the Tory group on Bristol Council, said. 

‘He brought in a Clean Air Zone, which hits hard-working Bristolians with fines every time they drive into the city centre, and yet there he is going around the world polluting the atmosphere with never a care in the world.

Bristol’s mayor Marvin Rees has visited the US, France, Rwanda and Dubai since September, in a hectic travel schedule that has involved seven separate flights

Last year Mr Rees (pictured) introduced a Clean Air Zone in Bristol under which non-compliant cars face a £9 daily charge

‘He was elected to be the Mayor of Bristol, not an international representative for whatever ideal he is currently pushing. He should be in Bristol, governing Bristol.’

Mr Rees was attending the Commonwealth Local Government Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, last month when 400 residents of a tower block in Bristol had to be evacuated after their homes were deemed unsafe.

Climate campaigners Flight Free UK worked out that Mr Rees’s flights since September have created almost 4.6 tons of carbon dioxide per passenger. 

That’s almost the entire annual carbon footprint of the average UK resident, which in 2022 stood at five tons.

Mr Rees spoke about how cities can cut emissions during a trip to the COP28 UN climate-change conference in Dubai earlier this month

The group’s director, Anna Hughes, said: ‘It’s unclear why a local mayor is flying to an international conference such as COP.

‘In this time of climate emergency, we should question very carefully whether it’s necessary to burn tons of fossil fuels in order to appear in person at events that require a long-haul flight.’

Mr Rees last month defended his decision to attend COP28, insisting Bristol ‘is a Premiership city that risks being relegated to League Two’ if he didn’t attend.

He added: ‘I just think it’s part of the job. But I get it. I get it takes a few steps to be able to understand that.’

Last night neither Mr Rees nor Bristol City Council would comment further about his flights.

The MoS last year revealed how Mr Rees made a 9,000-mile round trip to give a 14-minute speech at a conference in Vancouver, Canada.

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