OfficialWire: London Appoints New Climate [Swindle] Czar

London appointed the founder of an environmental policy department as its special envoy for climate change, the British foreign secretary announced.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the appointment John Ashton as his special representative for climate change for 2010.

Flashback: Climate change envoy's carbon footprint is 30 times British average| News | This is London

The diplomat charged by the Government with lecturing the world on global warming has been revealed as one of the biggest contributors to it.

John Ashton, whose role is to persuade other countries to reduce CO2 emissions, has made so many foreign trips by air in his job that his carbon footprint is already 30 times bigger than the UK average.

Figures obtained under Freedom of Information legislation show he has flown more than 80,000 miles since his appointment last June.

If he continues at this pace, he will clock up an annual mileage equivalent to flying five times round the globe.

The 50-year-old former diplomat's travels have taken him to climate-change conferences in Moscow, Stockholm, Beijing, Washington, Chicago, Berlin, Houston, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Bombay, Delhi, Nairobi and Copenhagen.