Top Climate Officials Failed To Track Emissions—Violating Federal Order, Watchdog Says

Top Climate Officials Failed To Track Emissions—Violating Federal Order, Watchdog Says

Share to Linkedin The Government Accountability Office on Thursday said the State Department hasn't created a system for tracking carbon emissions for travel despite a presidential order to do so and failed to estimate the carbon impact of John Kerry's recent trips to two United Nations conferences. US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland ... [+] on Sept. 12, 2022. Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images State officials told the accountability office they "did not have a systematic way to calculate greenhouse gas emissions" for travel, a violation of a 2021 presidential order, nor is it able to calculate the emissions for the full delegation because each participant makes their own travel arrangements. Federal agencies are required to track and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aviation travel, and the State Department said it is developing methods to estimate future travel emissions, the report said. The report released Thursday looked to discover the greenhouse gas emissions required for the U. S. delegation to travel to the United Nations Conference of the Parties in 2021 (COP26) and 2022 (COP27), which were held in Scotland and Egypt, respectively. According to the State