The Times has learnt that senior members of Transport 2000, which campaigns for sustainable travel and against growth in flights, believe that Palin sets a poor example.

He has flown more than a quarter of a million miles in the past 17 years while making his six TV series, which began in 1988 with his attempt to retrace the fictional footsteps of Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days. He has travelled across every continent, visited both poles and, most recently, climbed the Himalayas.

On screen he is seen riding dog sleds, camels, elephants and hot-air balloons. But few viewers will have realised how many air miles he clocked up making the programmes. For the Himalayas series alone, Palin made seven return trips between London and Asia. His share of the carbon dioxide emissions of those flights was 24 tonnes, 12 times more than the average car emits in a year.

Palin recently admitted that he had spent the past 17 years “busy polluting this environment on almost every conceiv- able form of carbon-emitting vehicle”. But he also claimed that his adventures reduced overall greenhouse gas emissions by encouraging people to remain on their sofas.

He told a recent environmental conference: “I shall continue to make travel programmes, secure in the knowledge that the food I’m seen eating, the sanitary arrangements I’m seen experiencing and the coughing attacks that strike me halfway up high mountains are doing more than any government could to persuade people to stay at home.”

However, travel firms use the phrase the “Palin effect to describe the surge in bookings for each destination he visits. The Adventure Company, which specialises in holidays off the beaten track, said that bookings for Peru tripled after he went to Machu Picchu.

Mark Wright, the managing director, said: “Palin put it in everyone’s living room. The same thing happened with his Himalayan series. People who might previously have been happy with two weeks in Benidorm are persuaded to try far-off places.”

The Association of British Travel Agents said: “In recent years, Palin has been more responsible than any other individual for inspiring people to travel to exotic locations.”

Transport 2000 has grown increasingly embarrassed not just by Palin’s journeys but his attempts to defend them. Its mission statement says it “seeks movement towards a society that relies less on cars, lorries and planes and makes more use of rail, buses, trams, cycling and walking”.

A foreword by Palin for its annual report was edited to remove a reference to the individual’s “right to fly”. Mayer Hillman, a founder member of Transport 2000 and an expert on sustainable transport, said: “Michael’s a lovely person but his flying means he is not an appropriate role model. He should consider his position because the president should set a good example.” Palin made a new year resolution last year to confine his travels to Europe. But within six weeks he flew to San Francisco.

In April, he dismissed reports that he would make no more travel programmes. He wrote: “The truth is that I could no more stop travelling than I could stop drawing breath.”

Stephen Joseph, director of Transport 2000, said Palin — who did not reply to questions put by The Times yesterday — had drawn attention to the environmental damage done by transport. “Criticisms of the travelling he does as part of his job miss the point. You can’t make a travel series in a London studio unless you want it to turn out as an Ealing comedy.”

www.timesonline.co.uk/greentravel

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