President Barack Obama’s attendance of the United Nations global warming summit in Paris last year cost taxpayers a whopping $2,976,296.20, according to records obtained by a government watchdog group.
Judicial Watch obtained records from the U.S. Secret Service and the Air Force through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showing just how much Obama’s trip to Paris in December 2015 cost taxpayers.
The conservative group found Air Force One flew for more than 14 hours at a cost of $180,118 per hour and a C-32A — used by the secretary of state or the first lady — flew for nearly 16 hours at a cost of $15,846 per hour.
That’s on top of the millions more spent on rail travel, hotels and other things the president needs when he travels abroad. The expenses for “additional cabinet members’ travel and catering, Secret Service meals, meeting rooms, etc. are not included in these totals,” according to Judicial Watch.
“Obama’s Paris junket is another example of wasteful and unnecessary presidential travel that abuses the taxpayers, the military, and the U.S. Secret Service,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.
Obama attended the major UN climate summit in December where nearly 200 countries agreed to a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions around the world, but that agreement still has not gone into force despite being signed on Earth Day.
The Obama administration worked behind the scenes for months to get countries to make voluntary pledges to cut emissions as part of the global warming deal. Politicians and environmentalists hyped up the conference in the months leading up to it as the “last chance” to avoid dangerous global warming.
“More countries have come here to sign this agreement today than any other time in human history, and that is cause for hope,” actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio said at the UN when the deal was being signed in New York in April.
But Earth’s “last chance” was criticized for having a huge carbon footprint. The Paris summit reportedly emitted 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide as world leaders and activists were flown in. The Paris summit was held at Le Bourget airport, the largest private jet airport in Europe.
(Editor’s Note: Obama’s trip to Paris cost only cost $2,976,296.20, which is now reflected in this report)
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