Boris Johnson criticism after short domestic flight to climate talks

He exits the plane with his thumbs up. A flight of less than an hour and a half. Johnson himself posted the photo on Twitter. He writes that G7 leaders face the challenge of coming back “fairer and greener” after the pandemic.

The reactions are not sympathetic. “You are not making that up,” replies the climate club Extinction Rebellion. “Are you on a plane and now expecting us to take your climate approach seriously?”

Others call it a shame and wonder why Johnson doesn’t go by car. Or by train, because it’s even faster. The distance between London and Cornwall, in the south-west of England, is approximately 450 kilometers, as is an Amsterdam-Maastricht round trip or an Amsterdam-Frankfurt trip.

After his flight, the Prime Minister visited a windmill and a solar park.

Not for the first time

This isn’t the first time Johnson has been the target of gunfire, as he often performs short flights. Last month he traveled by helicopter to a town just outside Birmingham to promote a sustainable cycling plan. The helicopter took 50 minutes, by train the journey had taken just under two hours. Even then the criticism was that he had set a bad example and the question arose as to whether he was taking the climate issue seriously.

Johnson will meet with leaders from Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the European Union in Cornwall tomorrow. The climate crisis is a priority on the agenda. The British Prime Minister is already in talks today with US President Joe Biden.