While COP26 president Alok Sharma spearheads the response to the climate crisis in Glasgow and preaches to the world about cutting carbon emissions from cars, four hundred miles away he has two gas-guzzling SUVs parked on the driveway of his £1.6million Berkshire home, MailOnline can reveal.
As he met with world leaders, business leaders, and other influential figures, Sharma tried to get them to implement measures that would force the public to buy expensive electric cars. However the two-diesel-powered Volvo SUVs on Mr Sharma’s land barely meet current environmental standards.
MailOnline was informed by a spokesperson for COP26 President, that Sharma had stated on multiple occasions that he would get rid of his diesel car to make way for an electric one.
In an interview on BBC Newsnight, Mr Sharma revealed that he has a diesel car and millions of other people.
‘I don’t drive it very often. I commute to London by public transport every day from Reading. I can guarantee you that my next car is almost certain to be an electric one.
While COP26 president Alok Sharma spearheads the response to the climate crisis in Glasgow and preaches to the world about cutting carbon emissions from cars, four hundred miles away he has two gas-guzzling SUVs parked on the driveway of his £1.6million Berkshire home
Alok Sharma (President of Cop26), speaks at the summit held at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow
Both vehicles seen on his drive fall miserably short of current CO2 emissions levels meaning that if Mr Sharma were to drive either of them to his central London Government office, he would have to pay £12.50 per car for entering the Ultra Low Emissions Zone, which is designed to penalise drivers of high polluting vehicles.
According to the DVLA vehicle check website, one of the Volvo cars registered in 2011 emits 184 grammes CO2 per kilometre, while the other, a 2005 Volvo, emits a staggering 239 grammes.
The average British car produced 112.8 grams of CO2 per kilometre last year. Future targets are set to reduce that number to zero, as the Government plans on banning the sale of new petrol or diesel cars starting in 2030.
Motoring lobby organizations accused Mr Sharma of ‘blatant Hypocrisy’ for driving a diesel vehicle while trying to implement COP26 policies to cut emissions and force many drivers out of their cars to buy expensive electric motors.
Brian Gregory, Policy Director of Alliance of British Drivers, stated that Mr Sharma’s ownership of an diesel car is a prime example of “do as I say, and not as I do”.
Alok Sharma, COP26 President, seated in a face mask at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow
“The Government tells us to buy electric cars, but senior ministers don’t have them.” It’s obvious hypocrisy. The joke is that Mr Sharma wouldn’t even be able drive his car into central London and not pay the ULEZ tax. It doesn’t surprise me that he still gets the train to work. I would do the exact same.
While Mr Sharma was engaged in discussions about saving the planet during the two week global climate summit, Ingelawas, his wife, was seen driving one of the diesel-powered SUVs by MailOnline as she returned home from a shopping trip.
Mr Sharma’s admission that he owns a diesel car is just one of a number of controversies that have marred COP26. Leading politicians and business leaders have been criticized for arriving in Scotland in carbon-churning private aircraft.
Some estimates suggest that more than 400 private jets have taken them to the conference over two weeks. Hundreds more delegates are also arriving on scheduled flights.
Gregory said, “There’s a lot of hypocrisy around this whole climate crisis issue. People are coming from all over the globe and causing more CO2 emission. Why can’t they just do this on Zoom?
“Sadly, motorists are being hit hard by climate change-related restrictions,” said Sharma. My message to Mr Sharma was to stop trying too hard and not be hypocritical.