Tory Party's EU Group Hosts Climate Science Denial Event Days Before MEPs Debate Climate Emergency Declaration

Rich
on

MEPs are this week calling for the EU to declare a โ€œclimate emergencyโ€, days after a network of climate science deniers held a hearing in the European Parliament claiming the exact opposite, hosted by the EU grouping to which the UKโ€™s Conservative Partyย belongs.

Lawmakers from centrist and left-leaning parties backed the climate emergency proposal in a debate yesterday evening, ahead of the upcoming UN climate summit due to start in Madrid nextย week.

The motion will be put to a vote on Thursday, when MEPs will also consider plans for an EU-wide 2050 โ€œnet zeroโ€ emissionsย target.

The UK made a similar declaration in June, but has been criticised by climate activists for not sufficiently putting words intoย action.

Miguel Arias Caรฑete, EU Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action, argued during the debate that the โ€œinterdependent environmental and climate crisisโ€ needed to be addressed with the โ€œutmostย urgencyโ€.

โ€œFires have raged from the Amazon to Siberia; heatwaves, droughts and cyclones are affecting billions of people throughout the world. Climate change and biodiversity losses are already affecting critical life systems on earth, threatening the livelihood of many,โ€ Caรฑeteย said.


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But newly-elected Brexit Party MEP Matthew Patten used the opportunity to criticise the Parliament for its convention of moving between Brussels and Strasbourg each month, which he calledย โ€œstupidโ€.ย 

โ€œThereโ€™s no climate emergency in this place โ€“ just a lot of hot air,โ€ heย said.

DeSmog revealed earlier this month that climate science denial and resistance to climate policy are widespread in the Brexitย Party.

Pattenโ€™s view was apparently shared by the organisers of an event in Brussels last week entitled โ€œThere is no climate emergency,โ€ sponsored by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group of MEPs.

The hearing on 20 November was coordinated by a Netherlands-based group called the Climate Intelligence Foundation (Clintel), whose โ€œWorld Climate Declarationโ€ states that โ€œCO2 is plant foodโ€ and claims there is โ€œno cause for panic or alarmโ€ about climateย change.

A video promoted by the UKโ€™s principal climate science denial campaign group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), shows the Liberal Democrat MEP Irina von Wiese challenging the organisers. One of the co-founders of Clintel then claims that recent reports by the IPCC, the UNโ€™s expert climate advisory body, say there is โ€œno [upward] trend in hurricanes and droughts andย floodsโ€.

This is despite a major IPCC report last October stating that โ€œTrends in intensity and frequency of some climate and weather extremes have been detectedโ€ sinceย 1950.

The GWPF has also backed calls by the European Climate Realist Network, a coalition of climate science denial groups, for MEPs to oppose the declaration of a climate emergency, which it calls โ€œunilateral virtueย signallingโ€.

Plans for a European-wide campaign by Clintel were leaked to DeSmog in September and Italian members of the network held a similar event in the Italian Senate lastย month.


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Ellie Chowns, who taught International Development at Birmingham University before becoming a Green Party MEP in June, also attended theย session.

She told DeSmog: โ€œI find it jaw-droppingly extraordinary – and frankly outrageous –ย that the Conservative Partyโ€™s political group in the European Parliament last week hosted a climate change denial meeting. What planet are they living on? This shows the Conservative Partyโ€™s true colours. They are not just failing to take the climate action we need, they are actively promoting lies andย denial.โ€

โ€œI know there are manyย Conservative voters who do care about the future of our children, and who will be horrified by their partyโ€™s involvement with climate denial,โ€ sheย added.

The ECR and Clintel did not respond to a request forย comment.

Updated 27/11/2019 to include information on the European Climate Realistย Network.

Image credit: Ellieย Chowns

Rich
Rich was the UK team's Deputy Editor from 2020-22 and an Associate Editor until September 2023. He joined the organisation in 2018 as a UK-focused investigative reporter, having previously worked for the climate charity Operation Noah.

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