Neil Record

Photo: screengrab from YouTube

Credentials

Record was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and University College London, from where he holds an MSc in Economics.¹

Background

Neil Record is Chairman of Net Zero Watch (formerly the Global Warming Policy Forum), the campaign arm of the UK’s principal climate science denial organisation, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.²

Record was also the Chairman of the Institute of Economic Affairs until July 2023, a position he had held since 2015.³ ⁴ Record is now the “Life Vice President” of the IEA.⁵

Record is also a known donor to the GWPF.⁶ ⁷

Record has numerous connections to the Tufton Street network, a small but influential network of free market, pro-Brexit thinktanks and lobby groups based at or near 55 Tufton Street including the GWPF, Net Zero Watch, the Institute of Economic Affairs, and Eurosceptic campaign group Global Vision.

Record is a major Conservative Party donor, having given £450,000 to the party and MP Matt Hancock since 2008, according to official records.⁸ During the Brexit campaign in 2016 he was listed as a business supporter of Business for Britain, a pro-Brexit group linked to 55 Tufton Street.⁹

Record is a board member of Restore Trust¹⁰ ¹¹ a campaign group that according to the Guardian was “waging a campaign against perceived ‘wokeness'” within the National Trust, a major UK conservation charity.¹²

In July 2023, Record stepped down as Chairman of his company Record PLC, a currency and asset management company. Record founded the company in 1983 and was chief executive until 2010.¹³

Stance on Climate Change

October 4, 2015

In an email, Record told Greenpeace’s Unearthed unit:¹⁴

“I believe that the important scientific enquiry required for us to understand man’s effect on the climate is being hampered by a monolithic ‘establishment’ view that the science is settled.”

[…]

“It is also clear that some of the current popular political choices for carbon reduction (wind; solar in high latitudes) are woefully inefficient and unsustainable,” Record said. “Advances in technology will undoubtedly continue to allow us to improve our carbon/GDP efficiency, but only if the current climate obsessions and fashions are subjected to proper scrutiny.”

Key Quotes

September 2, 2014

After Record was revealed as a GWPF donor, he told the Guardian:¹⁵

“I personally regard the continuing contribution of the GWPF to the climate change debate as very positive in assisting balance and rationality in this contentious area.”

Key Deeds

December 19, 2023

In an opinion piece published by the Telegraph titled “What could happen if we just stopped oil? Six billion might die,” Record wrote that he was “exasperated” by Just Stop Oil protesters.¹⁶

According to its website, Just Stop Oil’s main demand is that “the UK government makes a statement that it will immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK,” rather than an immediate end to fossil fuel use.¹⁷

Record wrote:

“But what would happen if we literally just stopped oil tomorrow and did without the natural resources on which the world, its economies and populations depend? The answer: most likely six billion people would die within a year.”

Record argued “diesel and petrol are likely to have run out by day 25,” and that “food distribution would fail, and so the population, most of which are entirely dependent on bought food, begin to starve.”

He concluded:

“Here’s my question: do the nice, well-meaning people of Just Stop Oil understand how the world works, or not? If they do, they are nihilists; if they don’t, then why are they disrupting the smooth running of our society, promoting an extreme course of action of which they have no understanding?

If, by the way, my analysis is wrong, they should enlighten us on how an immediate ban on fossil fuels will allow civilisation to continue and flourish.

To be clear I am not suggesting that the world is forever in the grip of fossil fuels. Far from it. History tells us that human civilisation is a story of constant change.”

October 2, 2023

In an opinion piece published by the Telegraph titled “The true cost of net zero? Ruinously high bills, for decades,” Record argued that “household electricity bills will rise relentlessly and then stay high if Britain sticks to its net zero ambitions.”¹⁸

Record added:

“This is the inevitable consequence of the shortcomings of all current means of generating clean electricity – and demand for electricity is certain to soar if we scrap gas boilers and force people to buy electric cars.”

Record wrote about the “shortcomings” of renewable energy sources including nuclear energy, hydro-electricity, solar energy, and wind, writing that “net zero by 2050 for Britain’s electricity supply is so difficult as to be practically impossible with current technology.”

November 2017

The Herald revealed that Record had donated £2,000 to Scottish Conservative MP John Lamont’s local party in Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk earlier in 2017. The news prompted SNP MSP Graeme Dey to call the Scottish Tories “shameless hypocrites” when it comes to the environment.¹⁹

November 2014

Matthew Hancock, received a donation of £4,000 from Neil Record a few months after Hancock was appointed as the Conservative Party’s energy and climate change minister. Since 2011, Hancock has accepted £18,000 from Record.²⁰

September 2014

Neil Record was revealed to be one of the GWPF’s funders but the amount donated was not disclosed, with Record stating the amount was a “private matter.” ²¹ ²²

April 2012

Hancock authored a Conservative Free Enterprise Group report calling for the government to cut wind and solar subsidies and push ahead with shale gas exploration and extraction.²³

2010

During his race to become MP for West Suffolk, Hancock helped to campaign against onshore wind developments in his region.²⁴