The Chair and Director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation appear before a Commons this afternoon. Left Foot Forward sets out 5 questions they must answer.
The Chairman and Director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation appear before the Science and Technology Select Committee this afternoon. Left Foot Forward sets out five questions they should be asked.
1. Who funds the Global Warming Policy Foundation?
Lord Lawson has written in the Independent on Sunday:
“the GWPF was “funded entirely by voluntary donations from a number of private individuals and charitable trusts. In order to make clear its complete independence, it does not accept gifts from either energy companies or anyone with a significant interest in an energy company”.”
Who are these private individuals and charitable trusts?
2. Why is the GWPF sharing offices with the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining?
The GWPF are based at 1 Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y 5DB.
Also at this address is the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, which “exists to promote and develop all aspects of materials science and engineering, geology, mining and associated technologies, mineral and petroleum engineering and extraction metallurgy, as a leading authority in the worldwide materials and mining community.”
3.What links does Lord Lawson have with big oil?
Lord Lawson told Channel 4 News that, “I have no links to oil companies of any kind”.
But the Central Europe Trust – which he chairs and in which he has “significant shareholdings” – claim as clients BP Amoco, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Texaco, and Total Fina Elf.
4.Why does the GWPF’s academic advisory council include a number of climate sceptics?
The aim of the GWPF “is to provide the most robust and reliable economic analysis and advice”.
Why then does their small academic advisory council include well known climate sceptics including:
• Ian Plimer, the author of “Heaven and Earth – Global Warming: The Missing Science”
• Philip Stott who has written that “global warming is a faith“
• Sir Ian Byatt who has faced calls to be sacked as chairman of Scotland’s water regulator for his thoughts on climate change; and
• Professor Richard Lindzen who appeared on the Great Global Warming Swindle.
5. Why does the GWPF’s board of trustees include a known climate sceptic?
The Liverpool Daily Post quotes remarks made by GWPF trustee, the Bishop of Chester:
The row followed the Bishop of Chester’s speech in a House of Lords debate on energy, in which he said discussion about the causes of global warming was “still open”.
Describing himself as a “scientist in a previous incarnation”, Dr Forster – whose diocese includes Wirral – said there was no consensus among climate scientists that “carbon dioxide levels are the key determinant”.
And he told peers: “Climate science is a notoriously imprecise area, because the phenomena under investigation are so large.
“That makes precision difficult to achieve.”
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27 Responses to “Five questions for Lord Lawson and Benny Peiser”
Scientists face asymmetries in public debates on climate change | Left Foot Forward
[…] response, Benny Peiser, a social anthropologist who heads up the sceptical Global Warming Policy Foundation, said: “You painted a picture that is slightly one side of the honest scientist on the one […]
Phil Randal
Five Questions for Lord Lawson & Benny Peiser http://bit.ly/9VsNLk shame that @r4today can't be bothered to ask them #climate #deniers #bbc
Proof reading, not science | Joss Garman
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Proof-reading vs. climate science » Climate Safety
[…] funds it even as it seeks greater transparency from scientists, and whose head, Lord Lawson, has explicit links to the fossil fuel industry. Benny Peiser, not a climate scientist but a social anthropologist at […]
Lawson still won't come clean about sceptic foundation's funding | Left Foot Forward
[…] claims that GWPF has no ties to any energy companies but, as reported here on Left Foot Forward, many questions remain unanswered. Why, for example, does the GWPF share its offices with a major mining company? […]