Some 450 U.S. diplomatic officials and employees attended two U.N. climate conferences, but nobody in the State Department knows how much greenhouse gases were emitted as a result of that travel, despite President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order directing the federal government to measure its emissions, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The U.S. delegation to the 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct. 31, 2021, to Nov. 12, 2021, included 191 federal executive branch officials and employees, and the 27th conference (COP27) met in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from Nov. 6, 2022, to Nov. 20, 2022, with 259 U.S. officials in attendance.
