Glasgow, Nov 9 (AP) Unlike some of her European colleagues, Leonore Gewessler arrived at the UN climate conference with a clean conscience.

The 27-hour journey by sleeper train from Vienna to Brussels, and then on to Glasgow, Scotland, spared Austria's climate minister the kind of criticism many VIPs faced for taking planes to a conference that's all about cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

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"Wherever possible, I try to choose the climate-friendly option," said Gewessler, whose portfolio also includes transport.

Since taking office last year, the Green Party politician has pushed to revive Europe's once-extensive night train network, which has been cut steeply due to competition from low-budget airlines.

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Gewessler said Monday she used her stopover in Brussels to meet other European officials and spent the rest of the 2,000-kilometer (1,240-mile) journey preparing for the climate talks that are reaching their final phase this week.

"Trains and night trains are the future of short and medium-distance travel in Europe," she said.

Gewessler also recently launched a nationwide climate ticket that allows Austrians to travel the length and breadth of the Alpine nation on any form of public transport for 1,095 euros (USD 1,269) a year — or 3 euros (USD 3.50) a day.

Almost 1,30,000 people have bought a climate ticket in the last few weeks, beating the government's best expectations.

Gewessler said deciding how they want to travel is every person's personal choice.

"But I became a politician in order to make it much easier for people in our society to move about in a climate-friendly way too," she said. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)