German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, of all people, is under attack for the controversial use of a government plane — rather than relying on commercial aircraft — for flights from his holiday in Majorca to Berlin last summer and back.

German media have calculated that the four flights by a government jet to pick up Gabriel from his holiday on the Spanish island, bring him back to Berlin and then fly the lone passenger back to Majorca later that same day emitted a total of 44 tonnes of carbon dioxide and cost taxpayers 50,000 euros. 

There were commercial flights with seats available to and from Majorca almost every hour that day, according to German media reports.

Gabriel, who has spearheaded German efforts to get other industrial nations to agree on lower emissions, rejected the criticism of the flights, saying he was urgently needed for a cabinet meeting and other government business.

 ”The chancellery offered to use the Luftwaffe,” Gabriel told a German television network. “We nevertheless tried to find an alternative flight but it wasn’t possible.”

Gabriel said it was the chancellery that had persuaded him to come back to Berlin on Aug. 8, 2007 to ensure a quorum after another cabinet member was not able to attend the meeting, which was held during the holiday season and lasted just one hour.

“If it happened again I believe that they would do everything exactly the same way,” Gabriel added. “But I told the chancellery that I will not interrupt my holiday ever again if the result afterwards is that I get into trouble for it. They’ll have to find someone else to take the heat.”