Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds has flown to Brazil for an international climate forum she hopes will benefit the city, prompting criticism from a fellow councillor over the trip’s carbon footprint.
Councillor Louise Elliot questioned the decision to travel overseas for a climate-focused event, posting on social media that it was “flying for climate again”.
“Unfortunately the lord mayor doesn’t seem to get the hypocrisy,” she said.
“You’re literally contributing massive carbon emissions to go to another talkfest about ‘delivering climate outcomes’. It’s not the flying, it’s the hypocrisy.”
Reynolds is in Rio de Janeiro as one of 16 co-chairs at the COP30 Local Leaders Forum, where hundreds of city and regional leaders are meeting to discuss climate action.
She is the only Australian invited to co-chair the event.
Speaking to the Sunday Tasmanian, Reynolds acknowledged her overseas travel would attract criticism but defended the trip as comparable to flying for any other purpose.
“It’s understandable to be concerned about the environmental impact of air travel, but it seems there’s an inconsistency with how we view travel for different purposes,” she said.
“Attending discussions to tackle the world’s biggest challenge – climate change – is seen negatively, but if you’re flying for sport or entertainment or to attend a business conference some people seem to think that’s totally fine.”
Bloomberg Philanthropies is funding the Brazil trip.
The organisation has previously contributed $235,000 to Hobart’s Youth Climate Action Fund and funded Harvard University courses for eight council staff.
The Rio visit follows international trips to New York in July 2024 for a Bloomberg Harvard event and to Dubai in November 2023 for COP28.
Reynolds said she would use the latest forum to promote Hobart’s climate science sector and highlight “significant” local challenges such as increased fire weather risk.
She said the city had a significant number of scientists involved in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Reynolds, who founded Australia’s first climate change non-government organisation in 1998, said she hoped to learn from other delegates and bring new ideas back to Hobart.
She previously worked for a decade in climate policy, including as a director with WWF International’s Global Climate Change Team and for former Greens leader Bob Brown.
