John Prescott's junketing has pumped more than 24 tons of carbon into the atmosphere

Lord Prescott’s return to frontline politics as Ed Miliband’s ‘climate change adviser’ has already hit turbulence – after research uncovered the size of the junketing peer’s own carbon footprint.

The former Deputy Prime Minister has enjoyed an astonishing 23 foreign trips in the course of this Parliament, amassing more than 181,000 air miles and depositing an estimated 24 tons of carbon into the atmosphere.

Lord Prescott, 76, says his new role will involve helping a future Labour government broker international agreements on reducing emissions, which campaigners claim are pushing up global temperatures.

Aviation will be one of the key areas for discussion: activists have called for higher taxes on air travel after calculating that environmental pollution from planes has increased by more than 80 per cent since 1990.

However, this has not deterred Lord Prescott from taking enough junkets since 2010 to fly seven times around the globe.

The Mail on Sunday has established that since joining the House of Lords in July 2010, he has flown – at someone else’s expense – to China (seven times), India (four times) and America (twice), as well as Russia, South Africa, Cuba, Norway, Iceland, Mexico, Japan and Germany.

According to his declarations in the Lords’ Register of Interests, he has also visited France twice, although it is unclear whether he flew or took the more environmentally friendly Eurostar.

Six of the trips were funded by Globe International, an organisation which gathers parliamentarians from different countries together to discuss climate change issues.

The bills for all his other junkets were either met by quangos, private companies or the UK Government.

Lord Prescott, who served as the EU’s lead negotiator at the Kyoto talks which led to the first global agreement on cutting carbon emissions in 1997, said he was taking the new frontbench role under Mr Miliband ‘to raise ambition on this crucial issue and… to help the man I hope will be the next Prime Minister so that together we can help the next generation’.

But critics claimed the job was just an excuse to bring Lord Prescott back in order to beef up Labour’s media performances in the run-up to the Election.

It was also seen as an attempt to stop the haemorrhage of both working class votes to Ukip, and environmentalist votes to the Green Party.

Mr Miliband said that he had given Lord Prescott the job because he ‘knows how to knock heads together’.

Lord Prescott first developed a reputation for ‘junketing’ during the 13 years he spent as Tony Blair’s deputy.

Lord Prescott, left, has jetted around the world to discuss and highlight the issue of climate change

Ed Miliband is believed to have given Lord Prescott, pictured, a job to secure working-class votes

Shortly before leaving the Government in 2007, he embarked on a seven-day ‘farewell tour’ of America and the Caribbean which was estimated to have cost taxpayers as much as £50,000. Prescott and his eight-strong team stayed in luxury hotels in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Jamaica and Barbados as part of a visit to highlight his ‘interest in urban planning and the end of slavery’.

Last night, Conservative MP Julian Smith said: ‘It is not surprising that “Two Jags” Prescott is completely hypocritical on climate change – saying that he wants to save the planet while jetting off to far-flung parts of the globe.

‘The surprising thing is that Ed Miliband thinks hard-working taxpayers should have to pay John Prescott’s bills again.

‘It would be a disaster if the John Prescott global vanity tour was allowed to obscure the important task of tackling climate change.’