Lib Dem Peer Asked Why Climate Denial Charity Needs Campaign Wing

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Baroness Emma Nicholson, the Liberal Democrat peer, must explain why the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) has set up a new campaign wing rather than simply comply with the limits set by the Charity Commission for educational charities, it was claimedย today.ย 

Nicholson is well-respected within the Lib Dems, but her views clash with the partyโ€™s clear climate change policy. She has extensive personal experience working with charities over many decades. But she is also a trustee of the GWPF, the climate denial think tank founded by the Tory ex-chancellor Lordย Lawson

The Lib Dems are today continuing their conference in Glasgow, where they have launched their election campaign for May 2015. Ed Davey, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, has told delegates the party has a proud record on global warming. However, after a controversial coalition with the Tories, the party could get massacred when Britain goes to theย polls.ย 

Bob Ward, head of policy at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Environment,ย today said Nicholson and her fellow GWPF trustees must explain why the charity had set up the Global Warming Policy Forum alongside the existingย charity.ย 

Ward complained to the Charity Commission, saying that the GWPF was often publishing misleading and biased information about climate change. The Charity Commission agreed that the GWPF had blurred fact with comment, but Lawson simply set up a non-charity wing in order to continue to distribute its anti-climate policyย literature.

A cynicalย move

โ€œThis reflects on Nicholson directly,โ€ Ward told DeSmog UK. โ€œItโ€™s the same as being director of a company; sheโ€™s supposed to bear responsibility. She ought to explainย herself.โ€

He added: โ€œOne would not expect a parliamentarian to support this agenda. It is a cynical move that the foundation, rather than getting its house in order, has decided to set up a lobbying armย instead.โ€

โ€œAs a trustee, one would expect Nicholson to have a view on this and to put pressure on other trustees to behave in a way that is appropriate for an organisation that seeks to portray itself as aย charity.โ€

Ward argued that Nicholsonโ€™s involvement with the GWPF was contradictory to the Liberal Democrat partyโ€™s stance on reducing carbon emissions to prevent climate change as a matter ofย urgency.

Nicholson was reached for comment but she did not respond, and a Liberal Democrat press officer said that she was โ€œentitled to herย viewsโ€.

In a recent GWPF publication entitledย โ€˜The Trouble with Climate Changeโ€™, Lord Lawson referred to climate change policy in the West as โ€œself-harming collectiveย madnessโ€.ย 

The latest criticism of Nicholson comes as Clegg is keen for the Conservatives to fulfil their environmental promises, blasting their โ€˜economic myopiaโ€™ over failing to hold their nerves on theย issue.ย 

Wardโ€™s statement follows the resignation of another GWPF member in May 2014, over what he deemed to be โ€œenormous worldwideย pressureโ€.ย 

In his resignation letter to David Henderson, meteorologist Lennart Bengtsson wrote that his treatment from the scientific community was โ€œa situation that reminds me of the time ofย McCarthyโ€.ย 

The influential think tank, which has repeatedly refused to reveal its funders, has been a source of controversy. Ward argued that the foundation โ€œarrogantly ignores any challenges to the accuracy of the information itย spreadsโ€.

Nicholson has accused the BBC of incredulous and bias coverage of the climate change debate. In an open letter, Baroness Nicholson, Lord Lawson and Labourโ€™s Lord Donoughue wrote that the BBC โ€œstands convicted not only of culpable imbalance but also of rank dishonestyโ€. They continued that the โ€œGWPF would be happy to be represented in any suchย seminarโ€.

Nicholson has also attacked wind farms. โ€œI am immensely unhappy that intermittent wind power has attracted such monstrous subsidies,โ€ she said in relation to what she refers to as the โ€˜fatal flawsโ€™ of Britainโ€™s โ€œwindย obsessionโ€.

As the leader of Lib Dems looks to attract investment for the UKโ€™s offshore wind industry, Nicholson has set her sights on a different kind ofย investment.ย 

Nicholson is also executive chairman of the Iraq British Business Council, and has celebrated theย โ€œamazing revival of Iraqโ€™s oil industry, led by Britainโ€™s BPโ€.

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