The UK’s charity watchdog has said it is “satisfied” with changes made by the country’s main climate science denial group after investigating concerns about its funding, structure, and bias.
In 2022 the Charity Commission, the UK’s independent charity regulator, launched a case into the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), set up by the (now late) Conservative peer Nigel Lawson in 2009.
The complaint against the GWPF – which is part of a network of “free market” think tanks based in and around Tufton Street, Westminster – was made by the then Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, Labour MP Clive Lewis, and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, with support from the Good Law Project non-profit.
They accused the GWPF of breaching charity law by spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on one-sided research attacking climate science, and by funding the lobbying activities of its campaign arm Net Zero Watch (NZW).
The GWPF’s director Benny Peiser has suggested it would be “extraordinary anyone should think there is a climate crisis”, while the group has also expressed the view that carbon dioxide has been mis-characterised as pollution, when in fact it is a “benefit to the planet”.
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s foremost climate science body, has stated that carbon dioxide “is responsible for most of global warming” since the late 19th century, which has increased the “severity and frequency of weather and climate extremes, like heat waves, heavy rains, and drought”.
World temperatures reached their hottest levels ever measured in July this year.
In assessing whether the GWPF was breaking charity rules, the commission looked into the group’s output and website content, its sources of funding, and its relationship with NZW.
During the review, the GWPF made a series of changes, including introducing an “open peer review” for its reports, plans to end its formal ownership of NZW, and adding website links to mainstream climate science sources.
The commission concluded that provided these changes are carried out, it was “satisfied the concerns raised are now resolved”.
Jolyon Maugham, executive director of the Good Law Project, told DeSmog: “Reading between the lines it is clear that the Global Warming Policy Foundation committed multiple breaches of charity law.
“What is startling is the Charity Commission’s unfathomable desire to spare GWPF explicit criticism or impose regulatory sanction. There are proper questions to be asked about the notional regulator’s motivations.”
The GWPF also claimed it had a policy not to accept any donations from “the energy industry or anyone with a significant interest in an energy company”. The commission said it accepted these “strong assurances from the trustees” of the GWPF.
However, the GWPF has received funding from individuals and groups with fossil fuel interests. As DeSmog reported in June, the group has received £20,000 since 2019 from Tory peer Jon Moynihan, who has at least £100,000 of shares in oil and gas companies BP, Shell, and TotalEnergies.
In 2022, The Guardian revealed that the American Friends of GWPF had received $210,525 in 2018 and 2020 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation, a U.S. oil dynasty with millions of shares in oil and gas giants including ExxonMobil, and Chevron.
Tracy Howarth, assistant director for casework at the Charity Commission, said: “There are many charitable think tanks on our register, representing a range of intellectual traditions and outlooks. Our role is not to examine their worldview, but to ensure that charities demonstrate that they are furthering their purposes for the public benefit.”
She concluded: “We have engaged with the Global Warming Policy Foundation on a range of regulatory issues in some detail and over many months.
“During that time, the charity has made changes and improvements both to its charitable activities, and its relationships with third parties. We expect the trustees to now fully implement the proposed changes. On that basis, we are satisfied the concerns raised are now resolved.”
Political Links
Prominent right-wing politicians and journalists sit on the GWPF’s board of trustees, including Tory peer Lord David Frost, former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott, and Telegraph chief interviewer and columnist Allison Pearson. Former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns is a director of NZW.
The GWPF frequently publishes reports which cast doubt on established climate science, explicitly rejecting the position of the majority of the world’s climate scientists.
A number of climate consensus studies conducted between 2004 and 2015 found that between 90 percent and 100 percent of experts agree that humans are responsible for climate change. A study published in 2021, which reviewed over 3,000 scientific papers, found that over 99 percent of climate science literature says that global warming is caused by human activity.
The GWPF regularly questions the conclusions of the IPCC, whose reports are now featured on the group’s website following the Charity Commission’s review.
The GWPF and NZW actively campaign against the UK government’s net zero emissions policies, claiming they will lead to “the transfer of hundreds of millions of pounds from the poor to the rich”.
NZW has urged the government to “recommit to fossil fuels”, including “a new fleet of coal fired power stations”, and has called for renewable energy from wind and solar power to be “wound down completely”.
The GWPF welcomed the Charity Commission’s conclusions. Jerome Booth, the group’s chairman, said in a press release: “There are those who employ moral reasoning with little respect for opposing views. Sometimes they employ heavy handed means to shut down debate and persecute and attack anyone with whom they disagree. When they happen to be wrong this can seriously hamper good decisions and policy making.
“This educational charity was set up to help generate an informed and rational debate on energy and climate policies for the greater public good. We welcome the commission’s findings and will continue to pursue our charitable objectives.”
