EXCLUSIVE: COP26 president Alok Sharma has two gas-guzzling diesel Volvo SUVs parked outside his £1.6million Berkshire home
- EXCLUSIVE: Alok Sharma has two diesel Volvo SUVs parked outside his home
- COP26 president is spearheading the response to climate crisis in Glasgow
- Spokesman admitted: ‘Mr Sharma has promised he will get rid of his diesel car’
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 pressed the flesh with world leaders and influential business figures to implement measures that could force the public switch to expensive electric cars, the two-diesel powered Volvo SUVs pictured on Mr Sharma’s property barely meet current environmental standards for British roads.
A spokesperson for the COP26 President admitted to MailOnline: ‘As he has said on several occasions, Mr Sharma has promised he will be getting rid of his diesel car and replacing it with an electric one as soon as he has time after the COP.’
Mr Sharma also revealed in an interview earlier this year on BBC Newsnight: ‘I actually have a diesel car along with millions of other people.
‘I don’t drive it very much. I take public transport from Reading into London every day. I can assure you my next car will almost certainly be an electric vehicle.’
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 for Cop26, speaking at the summit at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) 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 checking website, one of the 2011 registered Volvo cars on Mr Sharma’s drive emits 184 grammes of CO2 per kilometre while the other, a 2005 Volvo emits a whopping 239 grammes per kilometre.
Last year, the average British car emitted around 112.8 grammes of CO2 per kilometre with future targets set to bring that figure down to zero as the Government plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.
Motoring lobby groups accused Mr Sharma of ‘blatant hypocrisy’ for owning a diesel car while trying to implement COP26 polices to cut emissions and force many drivers to splash out on costly electric motors.
Brian Gregory, Policy Director of the Alliance of British Drivers said: ‘Mr Sharma’s ownership of a diesel car is a prime example of ‘do as I say, not do as I do.’
COP26 President Alok Sharma wearing a face mask chairs the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow
‘The Government is telling us to buy electric cars, but senior ministers don’t have them themselves. It’s blatant hypocrisy. The joke is that Mr Sharma wouldn’t even be able to drive his car into central London without paying the ULEZ charge, so it doesn’t surprise me that he gets the train to work. I would do the same.’
As Mr Sharma was locked in discussions on saving the planet during the two-week global climate summit, his wife Ingelawas seen by MailOnline driving one of the diesel-powered SUVs as she returned from home from a shopping trip.
Mr Sharma’s admission to owning a diesel car is the latest in a string of controversies to have marred COP26 with leading politicians and influential business figures slammed for arriving in Scotland from around the world in carbon churning private jets.
According to some estimates, more than 400 private jets have ferried them to the two-week conference, with hundreds more delegates arriving on scheduled flights.
Mr Gregory added: ‘There’s a huge amount of hypocrisy about this whole climate crisis issue. People are jetting in from all over the world and causing more CO2 emissions. Why couldn’t they have just done this on Zoom?
‘Sadly, motorists are paying the price as more restrictions are introduced by politicians responding to climate change. My message to Mr Sharma is stop pulling the wool over our eyes and stop being a hypocrite.’
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