Pro-Brexit Oil Company Boss and Major Tory Donor Named as Director of Climate Science Denying GWPF

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Climate science denial campaign group, the Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF), has a new director โ€“ a well-connected, pro-Brexit, millionaire Tory funder with a vested interest in slowing the UKโ€™s transition to a low carbonย economy.

Terence Mordaunt was quietly announced as having joined the board of directors of former chancellor and prominent climate science denier and Brexiteer Nigel Lawsonโ€™s GWPF inย April.

Mordaunt is reportedly worth ยฃ165 million. He personally donated ยฃ34,600 to the Conservative party between 2003 and 2009, according to Electoral Register data. His companies also donated at least ยฃ135,000 to the party since 2008, including a ยฃ25,000 donation inย 2017.

Mordaunt joins two other major Conservative Party donors, Neil Record and Edward Atkin, on the GWPFโ€™sย board.

Mordaunt is best known for being the co-owner of the Bristol Portย Company.

DeSmog UK previously revealed how a network of climate science denial organisations based out of 55 Tufton Street including the GWPF were pushing for Brexit. Mordauntโ€™s Bristol Port Company fits into that bracket, with the company having donated ยฃ100k to Vote Leave inย 2016.

The donations made Mordaunt Vote Leaveโ€™s 13th biggest donor, according to Businessย Insider.

In 2015 the Bristol Port Company acquired the freehold for Bristol docksย from the local council, making the port fully privatised, through a process described by independent media organisation The Bristol Cable as โ€œsuspiciousโ€.

Mordaunt is also a director of Bristol Oil and Gas, which was set up with the intention of exploring for oil and gas on land owned by Bristol Portย Company.

Bristol mayorโ€™s office claimed it had a clause in the portโ€™s contract which meant Bristol Port Company could not drill for fossil fuels on the land. But The Bristol Cable uncovered documents that suggested this did not extend to subsidiaries, including Bristol Oil andย Gas.

Mordauntโ€™s appointment as a GWPF director now means the organisation has an oil company boss as well as a coal-baronย (Matt Ridley) in officialย positions.

However, Bristol Oil and Gasโ€™s latest accounts suggest the project remains stalled, with the company only listing ยฃ1 on itsย books.

Bristol Port Company also has a complicated relationship with the renewablesย industry.

It was at the vanguard of lobbying against a major renewables project in 2013 โ€“ the Severn tidal barrage โ€“ that the builderโ€™s claimed could have provided low carbon power for up to five percent of the UKโ€™sย needs.

Former Bristol Mayor George Ferguson also made negative comments about the tidal barrage project. Ferguson ultimately made the decision to sell the portโ€™s freehold to Mordaunt, and has described him and business partner David Ord as โ€œgood chapsโ€.ย The projectโ€™s owners described Fergusonโ€™s criticism of the project as โ€œpreposterousโ€.

On the other hand, Bristol Port has three large wind turbines that it boasts provide about two thirds of its electricity and allows it โ€œto save over 15,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every yearโ€. Al Gore even gave the project anย award.

The wind farm benefited from about ยฃ717,000 of government subsidy in 2016, according to the latest available data. The GWPF, however, has repeatedly called for the government to scrap such subsidies and to โ€œcut all supportโ€ for renewable energyย generators.

The majority shareholder of Bristol Port Company and Bristol Oil and Gas is an opaque outfit called First Corporate Consultants. Mordaunt is listed as the โ€œultimate controlling partyโ€ of the group in its latestย accounts.

Those accounts show that the group made โ€œcharitable donations of ยฃ354,666โ€ in 2016. The documents do not provide any details of the recipients of theseย donations.

Mordaunt did not respond to DeSmog UKโ€™s request for clarification about whether any part of this donation was given to the GWPF.

Main image credit: Geograph.org.uk via Wikimedia Commons CCย 2.0

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Mat was DeSmog's Special Projects and Investigations Editor, and Operations Director of DeSmog UK Ltd. He was DeSmog UKโ€™s Editor from October 2017 to March 2021, having previously been an editor at Nature Climate Change and analyst at Carbon Brief.

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