To listen to Ed Miliband you might well come to the conclusion that he wasn’t terribly keen on air travel, considering it a threat to the Earth’s climate and indeed the entire human race.

‘Any aviation expansion will only be able to go ahead if it is consistent with our carbon budgets,’ he said earlier this year when the Government revisited the idea of constructing a third runway at Heathrow.

In February, when the Government’s Climate Change Committee proposed that air travel be discouraged through a frequent-flyer tax, an increase in Air Passenger Duty and a reduction in the number of domestic flights, he declined to rule out any of these measures, saying: ‘We owe it to future generations to tackle the existential climate crisis.’

But just like the celebrities who preach to the rest of us about climate change as they flit around the globe in their private jets, with Miliband it appears to be a case of, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’

In practice, Miliband is one of the country’s most prolific air travellers, notching up at least 44,600 air miles since he became Energy and Climate Change Secretary in July. That is the equivalent of more than 12 return flights to Tenerife.

With astonishing hypocrisy, he began his aviation odyssey in August by flying to Brazil ‘to signal Britain’s resurgent ambition for global leadership on international climate’. 

This is how his trip was justified in a document published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

His trip took in the capital Brasilia and the northern cities of Fortaleza and Belem. 

A graphic showing the miles jetsetting Miliband has racked up in his role as secretary of state for energy security and net zero

Miliband is one of the country’s most prolific air travellers, notching up at least 44,600 air miles since he became Energy and Climate Change Secretary in July

November 2024 saw Miliband fly to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, for the COP29 summit

Then in March Miliband (pictured) flew to Beijing, again to discuss climate change totting up another 12.5 tons of carbon emissions

If he travelled business class he would have been responsible for 19.7 tons of carbon dioxide for this excursion alone, according to the carbon calculator on the website myclimate.org. 

That is four times the average annual carbon emissions per capita for the UK population.

But that was a mere dip of the toe into Miliband’s overall carbon footprint over the past nine months.

A month later he was airborne again, flying to the Big Apple with three officials to attend New York Climate Week. That was another 7,000 air miles or so and another 7.7 tons of carbon emissions.

If he took a scheduled flight, that is. In fact, records show that one of the legs was a ‘non-scheduled flight’ – for which read ‘private jet’, in which case his emissions could have been several times higher.

In October he was off to Washington to attend a meeting of G20 energy ministers, racking up a further 7,300 air miles and 8.4 tons of carbon.

November saw him fly to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, for the COP29 summit. That was another 4,900 air miles and at least 5.4 tons of carbon. As his trip involved at least one ‘non-scheduled flight’, however, his true emissions total would have been much higher.

Official records show that Miliband flew with five officials from his department. 

A Freedom of Information request published last week revealed that his department spent £43,644 on flights within the UK between July and December – the very sort of flights which the Climate Change Committee has suggested banning

But, in all, more than 100 civil servants from the Energy Department were registered to attend the conference. Presumably they flew separately. 

Then, in March, Miliband flew to Beijing, again to discuss climate change. This time he ran up 10,600 air miles, totting up another 12.5 tons of carbon emissions – and that’s ignoring the CO2 created in the course of transporting the officials he took with him.

And these are just Miliband’s international travels.

A Freedom of Information request published last week revealed that his department spent £43,644 on flights within the UK between July and December – the very sort of flights which the Climate Change Committee has suggested banning. 

Although the figures don’t break down how much of this was spent on getting Miliband himself about the country and how much was travel by his officials, we know he visited Aberdeen on October 17 last year and that the timings of his trip mean that he must have undertaken the journey by air. 

That is a further 800 miles and 0.6 tons of carbon emissions.

By the way, the British Airways website is showing return flights from Heathrow to Aberdeen from about £200. 

If the Energy Department spent more than £40,000 on domestic flights in a period of just six months, it suggests either that officials are routinely taking flights for journeys that could have been completed by train, or possibly that they are paying well above the odds, perhaps because they were hiring private jets.

The Energy Secretary’s hypocrisy over air travel does not end with his own personal travel. At the same time he was making energetic representations against a third runway at Heathrow

Miliband’s air travels alone mean he has been responsible for at least 54.2 tons of carbon emissions in the past nine months – more than 12 times the annual emissions of the average Briton.

How ridiculous for someone who in November told us that Britain was already suffering ‘extreme impacts’ of climate change.

Needless to say, it is the rest of us, not him, whom he expects to change lifestyles in order to save the planet. 

He wants us to ditch our gas boilers and buy expensive heat pumps (Miliband does at least have one of these), and to ditch our petrol and diesel cars for pricey electric models and a lifetime of range anxiety.

The Energy Secretary’s hypocrisy over air travel does not end with his own personal travel.

At the same time he was making energetic representations against a third runway at Heathrow, he was lobbying hard for the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield Airport, which served his own constituency between 2005 and 2022 before closing after the now defunct airline Flybe withdrew its services.

His lobbying worked. In December the airport welcomed its first flight for two years thanks, in part, to an injection of £3 million of taxpayers’ money from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. 

It seems that it is one rule for his own constituency and another for the rest of the country.

Nor did Miliband see fit to criticise the Prime Minister when he was grilled about why Sir Keir Starmer took a private jet to attend the Euro 2024 football tournament in Germany last year

Nor did Miliband see fit to criticise the Prime Minister when he was grilled about why Sir Keir Starmer took a private jet to attend the Euro 2024 football tournament in Germany last year.

All Miliband did say was: ‘He’s the Prime Minister of the country. He needs to get about.’

That is no answer at all. And there is no reason whatsoever why a Prime Minister – accompanied by the appropriate level of security – should not travel on a scheduled flight. Many of Starmer’s predecessors have happily travelled in this way over the years.

Of course, arguments can be made for ministers criss-crossing the world, and sometimes this can involve travelling to destinations not served by scheduled flights. But if Miliband is going to lecture the rest of the population about

the urgent need to tackle climate change by curtailing our lifestyles, you might think that he would at least make some effort to cut his own emissions.

‘How does Miliband expect us to spend, say, £13,000 on a heat pump – the average cost of such an appliance installed under the Government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme, before grants of £7,500 are taken into account – if he is not prepared to rein in his air travel?’

To fail to do so invites ridicule and contempt.

How does Miliband expect us to spend, say, £13,000 on a heat pump – the average cost of such an appliance installed under the Government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme, before grants of £7,500 are taken into account – if he is not prepared to rein in his air travel?

A case might be made that he had to travel to Baku for COP29, but he certainly didn’t have to fly to Brazil, New York and Washington for meetings in the weeks leading up to the conference. Has he not heard of Zoom?

Miliband has become the face of Government climate policy, zealously promoting measures that have given us the highest energy prices in the world and contributed to Britain’s industrial decline.

Thanks to Miliband’s mad dash to Net Zero, we are on the verge of losing the bulk of our steel industry and in danger of losing our chemicals industry as well.

Either he should practise what he preaches – or stop preaching.