The officials were meeting at a rate of more than one global gathering a week, Simon Birmingham said.
The opposition's parliamentary secretary for the environment says the government spent $2.74 million on travel by public servants to attend 64 overseas climate change meetings during 2009-10.
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The figures, disclosed during a Senate estimates meeting, does not include travel by ministers - including former prime minister Kevin Rudd and previous climate change minister Penny Wong - or their advisers to meetings such as the Copenhagen conference.
"Taxpayers have a right to ask whether the huge sums being spent on seemingly never-ending climate change talks are giving them value for money," Senator Birmingham said in a statement on Tuesday.
