A climate denial think tank with ties to the Conservative Party has seen a series of high profile departures, including influential Tory peer Lord Frost, DeSmog can report. 

The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK’s main climate denial group, has lost three board members in the second half of 2024, according to GWPF filings at Companies House. 

Tory and Reform UK donor Terence Mordaunt, editor of The Conservative Woman Kathy Gyngell, and Lord Frost stepped down in August, September, and December respectively. 

The GWPF also announced last month that founding director Benny Peiser, who set up the group with former Conservative chancellor Lord Lawson in 2009, would be retiring “shortly”. 

It’s not clear what prompted these changes. The GWPF and outgoing board members did not respond to DeSmog’s request for comment.

In January, the group reported its lowest annual income since 2016, with income for the period to September 2023 of £280,000, down £100,000 on the previous year. 

The GWPF is part of the 55 Tufton Street network of think tanks that campaign against action to limit global warming. It publishes reports that cast doubt on established climate science, and lobbies for more fossil fuel extraction via its campaign arm Net Zero Watch (NZW).

The GWPF has in the past expressed the view that carbon dioxide has been mis-characterised as pollution, when in fact it is a “benefit to the planet”. 

Authors working for the world’s foremost climate science body, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have said that “it is a statement of fact, we cannot be any more certain; it is unequivocal and indisputable that humans are warming the planet”.

The IPCC has also 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” – all of which “will put a disproportionate burden on low-income households and thus increase poverty levels.”

Tory Ties

The GWPF and NZW have strong ties to the Conservative Party. A DeSmog analysis in September found that GWPF funders and directors had donated more than £7 million to the Conservatives over the past two decades, including during this year’s leadership contest. 

NZW chair Neil Record donated £15,000 to Kemi Badenoch’s successful campaign for Tory leader, and provided her with a campaign office.

Record – life vice president of the Tufton Street Institute of Economic Affairs think tank – also writes for The Telegraph, where Lord Frost is a regular columnist. Telegraph chief interviewer and columnist Allison Pearson still sits on the GWPF board, having joined in May 2023. The Telegraph regularly publishes articles attacking climate policies. 

Outgoing director Mordaunt, who served as GWPF chair from 2019 to 2021, has donated around £412,000 to the Conservatives since January 2023.

The GWPF board departures come as Badenoch moves her party to a more hostile position on climate action. The newly selected Tory leader describes herself as a “net zero sceptic”, has warned climate targets could “bankrupt” the UK, and last week attacked “radical green absolutism” while meeting with climate deniers in North America. 

Outgoing GWPF director Peiser has suggested it would be “extraordinary anyone should think there is a climate crisis”, while Frost has claimed global warming is “likely to be beneficial” to the UK. 

Other GWPF board directors include Tony Abbott, the former prime minister of Australia, who last year said man-made global warming was “ahistorical and utterly implausible” and has long backed coal power. 

In October, Abbott was dropped by the new Labour government as trade advisor, a role he was given by the previous Conservative government.

The GWPF board includes Graham Stringer, who was re-elected as the Labour MP for Blackley and Middleton in July, despite criticism of his association with the climate denial group. 

In July, the Charity Commission concluded a probe into the GWPF’s structure and funding following complaints from politicians and campaign groups about its political, anti-science output. The Commission concluded that the group should make minor changes in order to comply with charity rules, including ending its formal ownership of NZW.