Vijay Jayaraj

Credentials

M.S. Environmental Science, University of East Anglia, 2010¹

Background

Vijay Raj Jayaraj is a research associate at the CO2 Coalition², an Arlington, Virginia-based group that describes its mission as “educating thought leaders, policy makers, and the public about the important contribution made by carbon dioxide and fossil fuels to our lives and the economy.” ³

In op-eds for the CO2 Coalition and a variety of other publications, Vijay Jayaraj has often articulated common climate denial talking points. For example, he has dismissed climate science as “fake propaganda”⁴“; promoted the debunked notion that the sun has caused climate change⁵; and claimed that global commitments to net zero carbon emissions are attempts to prevent developing nations from industrializing.⁶

Prior to joining the CO2 Coalition, Vijay Jayaraj was a research associate for developing countries at the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, an evangelical Christian organization which claims that environmentalism is “one of the greatest threats to society and the church today.”⁷ ⁸ The Cornwall Alliance was founded in 2006 by former professor E. Calvin Beisner, who has been described as “the most influential evangelical anti-environmentalist in the United States.”⁹ ¹⁰

Vijay Jayaraj is a frequent contributor to RealClear Energy, which is published by the far-right news site RealClear Politics. According to his MuckRack profile, Vijay Jayaraj has also written for several other conservative media outlets, including American Thinker, Climate Depot, The Daily Caller, The Epoch Times, Newsmax, Townhall, the Washington Examiner, and the Washington Times.¹¹

Stance on Climate Change

January 24, 2023

In an op-ed for RealClear Energy, Vijay Jayaraj argued that people might not take the “fashionable” stance of opposing use of fossil fuels if they knew that “90 percent of things used in their everyday lives are derived from fossil fuels.”¹²

Excerpts from the op-ed:

“From your toothbrush to your car tire, a majority of the things you use today has been made possible because of fossil fuels. Shoes, refrigerators, washing machines, coffee makers, furniture, pens, eating utensils, eyeglasses, commodes, medical gear, camping equipment, and the list goes on and on.

[…]

“You wouldn’t have the iPhone, Android or MacBook without fossil fuels. Imagine the irony of typing out ‘end oil’ from a phone that is made from fossil fuels! Or supporting climate activism by relaying video that was recorded with a camera made from fossil fuels! Of course, this sort of irony is displayed regularly and missed constantly.”

December 2, 2022

In an op-ed for RealClear Energy, Vijay Jayaraj claimed, that “those discouraging the use of fossil fuels in Africa in favor of wind and solar have played a direct role in high morbidity and mortality rates on the continent.” While describing extensive “energy poverty” across the African continent, he did not provide proof of a direct link between renewable energy development and a lack of power for health care.¹³

September 17, 2019

In an op-ed for The Christian Post, Vijay Jayaraj claimed that Arctic sea ice was declining to geological cycles, rather than the true cause of climate change:¹⁴

“Arctic sea ice volume has been on a steady decline during the last three centuries. The primary reason for this decline is the onset of the Modern Warm Period during the 18th century. However, although Arctic sea ice volumes began declining after the end of the [Little Ice Age] in the 17th century, the decrease is not unprecedented, and the volume of sea ice is nowhere near the lowest recorded levels. Rather, Arctic sea ice is still at one of its highest levels in 10,000 years.

[…]

“Furthermore, rising carbon dioxide emissions have failed to cause any drastic reduction in Arctic sea ice volumes. This corresponds to the stability of global temperature levels, which have shown poor correlation with rising concentration of atmospheric CO2.”

In December 2019—around six weeks after Vijay Jayaraj claimed in this op-ed that “on a purely historical basis, we have every reason to be happy that we live in a time of continuing health and stability of our polar regions”—the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that Arctic sea ice extent for November 2019 decreased to the second lowest level seen in the 41-year satellite record.¹⁵

June 23, 2019

In an op-ed for Townhall, Vijay Jayaraj criticized scientific climate modeling:¹⁶

“During the past 19 years, the computer climate models used to forecast global temperatures failed to predict the temperature levels accurately. Even worse, the models failed to capture the apparent slowdown in the warming of earth. These are the very same models that are currently being used to justify climate policies like the Paris agreement. With a two-decade record of dismal failure in predicting temperatures, the model outputs can hardly be trusted as valid indicators of future climate.

[…]

“Other climate gaffes include the claims about the worsening of extreme weather events due to climate change. Contrary to popular belief, there has been no observable increase in extreme weather events.”

March 14, 2019

In an op-ed for American Thinker, Vijay Jayaraj wrote:¹⁷

“Climate alarmists constantly warn us that man-made global warming is making our world less habitable and that climate doomsday is fast approaching. But a closer look at our climate reveals a surprising climate discovery that our mainstream media have conveniently ignored for decades: the role of the sun in determining Earth’s climate.

[…]

“CO2 is just one of many factors that influence global temperatures. Its role in recent warming is far from dominant. Indeed, there is poor correlation between CO2 emissions and global temperature.

[…]

“Life on Earth is possible because of Earth’s perfect positioning in the solar system: not too close to the sun and not too far. For centuries, academicians have acknowledged this, and climate scientists today know that the sun is the biggest influencer and driver of global temperature.”

March 2018

Vijay Jayaraj was interviewed on the Wayne Allyn Root show. When Root dismissed climate change as “a bunch of liberal claptrap,” Jayaraj responded:¹⁸

“We have very little power to change the climate, it’s not a temperature knob in our house that we can turn. If you take the climate for the past 2000 years, there have been two instances in which the temperature has been much higher than now, and it had nothing to do with human emission of carbon dioxide. So you’re right to say that the climate has been changing all along.”

Jayaraj also stated:

“This whole climate change saga, it began in the ‘70s, there has been 50 years of fake propaganda.

[…]

“The only time we suffered as a human civilization was during the Little Ice Age in the 17th Century, when the Earth’s temperature dipped. So we are being fed lies every day, that hot temperatures are bad for the Earth, when in fact hot temperatures, along with increased carbon dioxide concentration in the air, have helped plants grow more. Research studies from the past three years indicate that the Earth is much greener today than it was two or three centuries ago.”

Key Quotes

July 27, 2022

In an op-ed for RealClearEnergy, Vijay Jayaraj claimed that “millions of Africans are being systematically forced by the elites of Europe and North America into a future free of fossil fuels and rife with poverty. This is carbon imperialism where Western leaders, who have embraced climate superstitions, control what kind of energy people in Africa use.”¹⁹

January 22, 2020

Vijay Jayaraj criticized climate activist Greta Thunberg in an op-ed for Townhall :²⁰

“The mainstream media, especially the leftist leaning media from the West, must stop treating school dropouts like climate experts and economists. In their sustained effort to promote climate alarmism, the positions Greta and the loony media are pushing might very well be destroying the hopes of those at the very verge of death in poor countries.”

November 24, 2019

In an op-ed for The Christian Post,²¹ Vijay Jayaraj criticized Pope Francis for suggesting that “ecological sin” should be added to the categories of sin in the Catholic Church’s official catechism:

“The modern consensus on climate change—a consensus that does not include all climate scientists—is uncomfortably similar to the flat-earth theory. Climate doomsayers firmly believe a catastrophe is imminent. They suppress evidence to the contrary, even banning it from academic circles. Just when our world was becoming scientifically progressive, climate doomsayers have hijacked academia. Worse, they advocate for policies that would trap billions in poverty.”

February 14, 2019

In a piece for Townhall, Jayaraj wrote:²²

“Manmade global warming is now said to cause more snow and less snow, higher temperatures and lower temperatures, more rain and less rain, more extreme weather events and fewer extreme weather events, increased prosperity and increased poverty—not to mention a global refugee crisis and regional wars. (Because none of these things, of course, ever occurred before people began driving SUVs!)

[…]

“How did we as a society become so indoctrinated with the theory of man-made global warming that common seasonal weather patterns like snowfall are called signs of global warming? The credit for climate confusion goes to the climate doomsday theorists. Global warming propagandists, also known as climate alarmists, are good at devising theories that suit their doomsday narrative.

[…]

“If anything is extraordinary, it is neither the government shutdown nor the extreme winters, but the ridiculous, pseudo-scientific claims of climate doomsday propagandists who constantly tweak their claims to suit and sustain their narrative.”

Key Actions

February 12, 2022

Vijay Jayaraj wrote an op-ed for BizPacReview titled “Before you save the planet, save the people who live on it.”²³

“[C]limate alarmists … seek to save the planet by killing its inhabitants — unwittingly or not,” Jayaraj wrote. “The socio-economic conditions of energy poverty, which can only be worsened by the forced replacement of fossil fuels with wind and solar, contribute to higher rates of both morbidity and mortality,” he added, echoing similar arguments made²⁴ by fossil fuel proponent Alex Epstein.²⁵

“Climate alarmists are seemingly unaware of the billions of people who wouldn’t live to see the future if their basic energy necessities of today were not met by affordable and available fossil fuels,” he wrote. “Saving the planet must not mean rejecting fossil fuels to meet such needs. Otherwise, the clarion call of environmental activists is the death knell for the billions they would condemn to energy poverty.”

March 26, 2021

In a piece for the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Vijay Jayaraj argued that due to rising oil prices and the opportunity to diversify oil imports, India intended to remain reliant on fossil fuels:²⁶

“India, despite its renewable push and commitment to be a member of Paris climate agreement, is defiant on its rights to use fossil fuels.”

March 17, 2021

In an op-ed for the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Vijay Jayaraj criticized UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s proposals for carbon border taxes at the 2021 G7 summit, as part of an attempt to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050:²⁷

“[T]he radical carbon border tax may however face opposition from India, given the latter’s clearly defined energy goals that demand an acceleration in the use of fossil fuels.”

Jayaraj also asserted that decarbonization would impede India’s economic development:

“Fossil fuels make up the majority of this energy consumption and there cannot be a compromise on fossil fuel production or import. The country is in a position where only fossil fuels can help it to meet the projected increase in energy demand.”

February 12, 2021

In an op-ed for the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Vijay Jayaraj argued that Western nations, having used fossil fuels to industrialize, were hypocritically seeking to deny that same opportunity to developing nations such as India:²⁸

“The developing countries must not allow their domestic energy policies be dictated by carbon imperialists from the West, especially those from the Biden administration…to ask India to forgo fossil fuels is suicidal.”

Jayaraj also questioned the viability of renewable energy:

“India understands the unreliability of wind and solar, and is leaving no stones unturned when it comes to securing fossil fuel reserves for the present and the future. For example, in 2020, the wind sector could not operate to its potential even in the months that are traditionally considered to be best for operations.”

February 3, 2021

In an opinion piece for American Thinker, Vijay Jayaraj criticized policies pursued by various nations—including the United States, the UK, and Germany—aimed at achieving net zero carbon emissions. Disputing the efficiency of renewable energy, Jayaraj wrote:²⁹\

“Besides being expensive, they are highly intermittent and so are unreliable. Further, wind and solar power cannot be used without backup by fossil fuel-powered energy sources.”

[…]

“Even in Germany, increased reliance on wind and solar has resulted in energy chaos. Berlin is facing energy shortages as both wind and solar have failed during the ongoing winter, and coal plants are running at full capacity to meet the demand.”

November 11, 2020

Vijay Jayaraj was interviewed on the YouTube show Power Hour hosted by Alex Epstein, the director of the Center for Industrial Progress (CIP), an American pro-fossil fuel think tank.³⁰

July 6, 2019

In an op-ed for Townhall, Vijay Jayaraj criticized solar energy as unreliable and more expensive than fossil fuels. He also claimed that nuclear power and fossil-fuel fired energy were more space-efficient:³¹

“When it comes to real estate, solar energy is the worst. Nuclear and fossil fuel plants generate the same energy by consuming only a fraction of space that solar consumes.

“Even during the daytime, solar energy cannot meet the demands of densely populated cities. Even worse, they consume a lot of space while generating proportionately less energy than fossil fuels or nuclear.”