According to tax documents seen by the Guardian and OpenDemocracy, an influential think tank that has responded to the government’s zero-net policy has received funding from oil and gas interest groups.
Although the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) has always said it is independent of the fossil fuel industry, revelations about its funding will raise questions about its campaign.
The think tank has always refused to disclose its donors, but tax documents filed with US authorities reveal that one of its donors owns $ 30 million (£ 24 million) in 22 coal, oil and oil companies. gas.
In four years, the US division of GWPF, the American Friends of GWPF, received more than $ 1 million from American donors. Most of that, $ 864,884, went to the UK group, with some being detained for spending. Of the £ 1.45 million that GWPF received as charitable donations in 2017, about 45% came from the United States.
He received $ 210,525 in 2018 and 2020 from the Sarah Skeif Foundation, founded by the billionaire libertarian heir to the oil and banking dynasty. The US-based foundation has $ 30 million in shares in 22 energy companies, including $ 9 million in Exxon and $ 5.7 million in Chevron, according to its financial documents.
Between 2016 and 2020, American Friends of the GWPF received $ 620,259 from the Donors Trust, funded by the Koch brothers, who inherited their father’s oil empire and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the climate denial movement.
“It is worrying that the Global Warming Policy Foundation is acting as a channel through which American ideological groups are trying to interfere in British democracy,” said Bob Ward, director of policy and communications at the LSE Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and environment.
The GWPF was set up by Lord Lawson, former Chancellor of the Conservatives, in 2009 to challenge the “costs and consequences” of measures to tackle climate change. He has since gained prominence in UK politics, with Conservative MPs and colleagues counting as supporters and trustees.
Craig McKinley, who heads the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG), a committee of about 20 lawmakers, backed the GWPF in its campaign, and two GWPF advisers were recently hired by McKinley’s parliamentary office as researchers. The NZSG says it does not question climate science, but exists to question the cost of reaching net zero.
Steve Baker, a Wycombe MP who has led much of the criticism of the government’s zero-zero policies, is a trustee of the GWPF and has voted in favor of the group, recently sharing a report from the think tank that denied a climate emergency. He is a prominent member of the NZSG and recently ran a fracking campaign, inviting the shale gas industry to speak to lawmakers and members of the right-wing press in parliament.
Following a campaign by the NZSG, the government recently announced that fracking companies would be allowed to continue their research in the UK. The shale gas wells, which were to be filled with concrete this summer, have been revived following a campaign by Baker, McInley and others involved in the NZSG. There are fears that the UK’s net zero ambitions could be mitigated by further campaigns by lawmakers on the party’s right.
The Guardian asked Baker and McKinley if they would reconsider their relationship with the GWPF in light of news of the think tank’s funding. McKinley said: “Look at the declarations of interests of my employees as they are properly recorded in the parliamentary register; everything is completely transparent for the whole world. Make it whatever you want. ”
Baker said the allegations “look ridiculous”, adding: “It is a remarkable fact that the same newspapers and commentators, who would usually be the first to protest against all kinds of poverty, are wasting public time trying to distract from the real problems.” hand. It would be better if the political world focused on how our current energy strategy has raised energy prices and contributed to the terrible cost of living crisis that so many people are experiencing. “
Funding has raised fears that US climate warfare wars could be part of UK policy and funded by billionaires linked to “big oil”.
Shadow Climate Secretary Ed Miliband said: “America’s right-wing big oil groups are desperate to stop fighting the climate crisis. They are now trying to expand their reach in the political debate in the United Kingdom.
“Confronting climate action will increase consumers’ bills because green energy is now cheaper, cleaner and faster than fossil fuels.
The rumors of a cultural war have already begun, with former Ukip leader Nigel Farage calling for a referendum on zero net, and Baker, a vital figure in the Brexit campaign, declaring he wants to “do for nothing what [he] I did it for Brexit. “
A GWPF spokesman said: “We do not accept donations from anyone who has an interest in an energy company. We turn down many proposals for funding from people with interests. I am not sure that this is true for any group on the other side of the debate.
“The donor trust is an intermediary that compares donors with those seeking funding. Payments are not made from a homogeneous set of money – recipients of funds know the identity of the original donors. Therefore, we can check them in accordance with our funding policy.
“I suggest you also think about what ‘interest’ is.” The money that is inherited does not create an “interest”, let alone an acquired one. The treasure that the Scaife Foundation eventually created was created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It would be ridiculous to assume that three generations later it is in the interest of the oil company. “
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