Climate Science Deniers and Brexit Campaigners Meet Under Banner of Free Trade

picture-25876-1571179299.jpg
on

Brexit cheerleader Daniel Hannan has been busy since last Juneโ€™s referendum set the clock ticking on his current job as a Member of the Europeanย Parliament.

His latest venture is the Institute for Free Trade, a โ€œprivate, not-for-profit, non-partisan research foundationโ€, launched at the Foreign Office no less. The group โ€œsees Britainโ€™s withdrawal from the European Union as a unique opportunity to revitalise the world trading systemโ€ โ€“ a somewhat optimistic outlook that goes against the grain of what most experts expect.

The IFTโ€™s inaugural Global Trade Summit, held in the heart of London in October, brought together prominent government ministers, lobbyists, free market idealogues, and climate science deniers from both sides of theย pond.

Trans-Atlantic Denierย Summit

And who better to help promote such an outfit than the self-styled โ€œrational optimistโ€, infamous purveyor of climate disinformation, and former chairman of one of the banks at the forefront of the 2007 financial crash, Mattย Ridley.

Ridley, an advisor to the climate science denial campaign group the Global Warming Policy Foundation and coal baron, chaired a session at the IFT summit titled โ€˜The Most Surprising Idea in Economicsโ€™. The panel was named after an article he wrote for The Conservative, which the IFT cross-posted to its ownย website.

The article celebrates the idea that โ€œthere is no such thing as a loser from free exchangeโ€, which fits nicely with the IFTโ€™s proposition that the best way to stop countries polluting is to make them rich.


Check out DeSmog UK‘s new disinformation database forย more


On Ridleyโ€™s panel was Mark J Perry, a scholar at the libertarian US think tank the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Perry later posted his comments to the AEIโ€™s blog, congratulating Hannan and thanking him ย for โ€œthe opportunity to be part of the inauguralย eventโ€.

The AEI is an avid opponent of environmental regulation, and its members have repeatedly denied the science on climate change. It has received millions in funding from infamous fossil fuel magnates, the Koch brothers, over theย years.

Perry previously authored an article for the AEI titled โ€œ18 examples of the spectacularly wrong predictions made around 1970 when the ‘green holy day’ (aka Earth Day) startedโ€, in which he claimed the โ€œhype, hysteria and spectacularly wrong apocalyptic predictions will continue, promoted by the ‘environmental grievanceย hustlers’โ€.

Perry has also tweeted that โ€œclimate change is a lieโ€, and endorsed an article from former Fox News host Glen Beckโ€™s The Blaze outlet that dubiously declared a new study โ€œcould totally dismantle the claim humans are causing globalย warmingโ€.

The IFT meeting strengthens the bonds of a trans-Atlantic network of climate science deniers, previously mapped by DeSmog UK.

Web ofย Disinformation

The IFT is based at 57 Tufton Street, sharing an office with the anti-renewables thinktank the Centre for Policy Studies. It is located next door to many of the organisations DeSmog UK previously revealed to be at the heart of a UK climate science denial network in 55 Tufton Street, including the GWPF, for which Ridley is an โ€˜academic advisorโ€™ย .

Hannan and Ridley are ideological allies. Ridley regularly tweets his support for Hannan and was invited to speak at a the โ€˜Blue Green Summitโ€™ in Brussels last year, hosted by the MEP.

At that event, Ridley spoke alongside Trump-ally and climate science denier Myron Ebell, who is director of energy for libertarian thinktank the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Ebell and Ridleyโ€™s comments were denounced as โ€œincredibly dangerousโ€ by former climate minister Greg Barker, who was also speaking at the event. Former UKIP MEP and climate science denier Roger Helmer and the GWPFโ€™s director Benny Peiser were also inย attendance.

A couple of days earlier, Peiser had sat beside Ebell at a GWPF event as he told journalists in London that Brexit offered an โ€œopportunityโ€ for the UK, allowing it to shed European environmental regulations and follow President Trump’s example in aiming to attain โ€œdominance as an energy producerโ€ in the oil, gas and coalย markets.

Hannan has himself questioned the utility of taking action to mitigate climateย change.

He told the European Parliament in 2015 that politicians should carefully consider โ€œhow much we spend on seeking very slightly to mitigate the rise in temperatures with huge sums of money versus adapting with a fractional sum of moneyโ€. The statement contrasts with the views of many economists that suggest investing to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change today will save huge sums in theย future.

Brexitย Politicians

According to Hannanโ€™s account of the IFT summit, the audience consisted โ€œlargely of civil servants and trade negotiators from Britain and abroad, plus a sprinkling of politicians including three cabinetย ministersโ€.

Environment secretary Michael Gove chaired a panel at the event. And trade minister Liam Fox appears to have been present โ€“ another character known for his participation in projects that spread climate disinformation. Fox held a breakfast meeting with representatives from the AEI in his first visit to the US following this summerโ€™s UK generalย election.

The IFT did not confirm whether Fox had been present at the Global Tradeย Summit.

When asked what its views were on the causes and seriousness of climate change, a spokesperson for the IFT told DeSmog UK that the organisation โ€œexists to make the case for freer global trade as an instrument of poverty alleviation. It has no corporate views on other issues, and so takes no position on climateย changeโ€.

For more information on key actors lobbying against action on climate change, take a look at DeSmog UKโ€™s newly launched Climate Disinformation Database and Web of Disinformation map.

Photo: Screengrab via Twitter

Get Weekly News Updates

picture-25876-1571179299.jpg
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.

Related Posts

Analysis
on

Experts accuse Farageโ€™s party of a โ€˜deliberate campaign of misinformation about climate changeโ€™ in the House of Commons.

Experts accuse Farageโ€™s party of a โ€˜deliberate campaign of misinformation about climate changeโ€™ in the House of Commons.
on

A Conservative peer and former UK trade advisor were among those who spoke at the summit.

A Conservative peer and former UK trade advisor were among those who spoke at the summit.
on

All Conservative appointees to the Board of Trade have been binned by the new Labour government.

All Conservative appointees to the Board of Trade have been binned by the new Labour government.
on

Multnomah County, Oregon, says NW Natural โ€œengaged in an enterprise of misrepresentationโ€ about its productsโ€™ harm to the climate.

Multnomah County, Oregon, says NW Natural โ€œengaged in an enterprise of misrepresentationโ€ about its productsโ€™ harm to the climate.