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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