The Green Party has been dressed as polar bears at big climate events rather than sitting around the table negotiating, Lord Prescott said on a visit to Norwich today.

The former deputy Prime Minister, who has been brought back by Ed Miliband as his climate change advisor, met scientists at the University of East Anglia during a fleeting visit to the key election battleground.

Norwich South is one of the Green Party's target seats in the upcoming election, with Labour also eyeing the marginal which the Liberal Democrats currently hold.

The veteran politician claimed during the visit that the Green Party was more concerned more about 'national austerity and things like that'.

He said it would be whoever was Prime Minister attending the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December.

'When we were at Copenhagen [the previous climate change conference], the Greens were there, but they were dressed up as polar bears. Polar bears will not be negotiating in Paris. It will be politicians.'

He said the current Prime Minister had fallen off his sledge after 'hugging a husky' and saying his party would be the greenest government ever.

'At the end of the day if you are interested in the environment it is critical we get the agreement, which is why the work that is done here is wonderful, and I am so delighted to come and talk to the experts here who do advise us on a very impartial and scientific basis.' He said that Ed Miliband had brought in the climate change act when previously in government.

'We have been at the fore. We were the leaders, it was only when Mr Cameron came in and discovered the Arctic or something, that they decided they wanted to do more. Well the proof is in the pudding. We are the party that led on the environment. We will be back to it if Ed Miliband becomes Prime Minister, we will be leading the way again.'