A nonprofit submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to determine whether federal employees avoided "extravagant or excessive travel" when attending the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) from Oct. 31 - Nov. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.
The Biden administration sent more than a dozen cabinet members and high-ranking administration officials to attend the conference including John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate, Gina McCarthy, White House national climate advisor and Secretary of State Tony Blinken. The United States sent more than 160 delegates, including those who are not current government employees.
“It is incumbent upon those who serve in the federal government to be good stewards of the resources the American public provides to them, which includes avoiding extravagant or excessive travel," Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public's Trust, a federal watchdog group, said in a press release. "The American public would certainly question the advisability of sending employees to mingle in large groups at a conference while many are still working from home due to the pandemic. These agencies could definitely make tremendous steps forward in improving the public’s trust by providing transparency with the requested records.”
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo spoke at an associated conference, CS London Climate Change Business Forum 2021: “The Road to COP26,” in London in the weeks leading up to COP26. Protect the Public's Trust filed FOIA requests with the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, State, the Interior, and Transportation; the Environmental Protection Agency; NASA, and the United States Agency for International Development to obtain documents related to travel by federal employees to COP26 and the CS London Climate Change Business Forum. The watchdog is seeking information on which federal employees traveled in relation to the conferences, as well as information about the planning and meetings that went on in preparation for these conferences.
In addition, PPT is seeking the telework status of all those who attended, including if any federal employees who attended the conferences were on pandemic-related telework schedules for their federal jobs.
