Charles 'the hypocrite' takes private plane for 500-mile trip to Scotland

Last updated at 00:22am on 31.03.07

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For one who prides himself on his green credentials, it seems an unnecessarily environmentally unfriendly way to go on holiday.

But if it's good enough to collect his wife's stilettos, a private jet is perfect for a 500-mile trip to the Highlands.

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Royal sources confirmed last night that Prince Charles boarded a Royal Flight HS125 at RAF Lyneham near his Highgrove home to take him, wife Camilla and a small entourage of aides to Aberdeen.

The couple are spending Easter at Birkhall, the Queen Mother's former country house near Balmoral which she bequeathed to Charles.

But his flight put him on a collision course with environmentalists who estimated the flight would have a carbon footprint of 15,000kg per passenger. Analysts Best Foot Forward said a scheduled flight would have resulted in a far less damaging carbon emission of 435kg per person as it would have had more passengers.

Travelling by car would more than half that figure to 180kg and going by train via London would be the greenest option with a estimated carbon emission of 60kg.

Joss Garman, a campaigner for green pressure group, Plane Stupid said: "This is the third time in as many months that he has taken a private jet when he could have taken a more environmentally sustainable means of transport.

"It is frustrating and disappointing that someone who styles himself as a green leader and should be leading an example, behaves in such a manner when everyone else is doing their best to cut emissions.

"This is exactly the type of unnecessary flight that we should be cutting down on."

Senior palace sources revealed that Charles had his wife's comfort in mind when he ordered the jet.

The Duchess of Cornwall is still recovering from a hysterectomy and flew with a nurse on board.

Charles vowed last December to "substantially" curb his reliance on gas-guzzling transport in favour of scheduled flights and train travel.

And a month later he turned down a private jet and took 20 members of his staff business class on a British Airways jet to New York to collect an award marking his environmental awareness.

In his speech, Charles said climate change "was a war we simply have to win". And he was applauded when he added: "It is surely the duty of each and every one of us to find out what we can do to make the situation better."

Nonetheless green campaigners and Environment Minister David Miliband said he could have accepted the award by video link.

In February, though, he reverted to a 140-seater private plane to fly to the Gulf with a 20-strong party.

During the trip, Camilla came under fire for flying a pair of stilettos from Highgrove to the Gulf after she realised she had landed in Kuwait without them. In the end, she didn't even wear the shoes.

The Prince went first class on a scheduled train from London Waterloo to Woking in Surrey to attend a series of engagements highlighting climate change.

But his chauffeur- driven biodiesel Jaguar XJ and a police Range Rover full of bodyguards made the same 31-mile journey to meet him afterwards and take him to other engagements and finally home to Highgrove.

A spokesman for Clarence House said: "We have always said that a number of factors need to be taken into account on each journey and in this case a key consideration was the Duchess's recuperation from her recent operation."

Carbon footprints - a measure of our impact on the environment - are calculated on the amount of polluting carbon dioxide produced by everything from turning on a light to taking a flight.

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