The UK's Pro-Brexit MEPs Didn't Want the European Parliament to Declare a Climate Emergency

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The European Parliament has declared a climate emergency. And it did so without the help of many of the UKโ€™s pro-Brexit MEPs.

A resolution declaring the emergency and calling on all global actors to โ€œurgently take the concrete action needed in order to fight and contain this threat before it is too lateโ€ passed with 429 votes for, 225 votes against, and 19 abstentions on Novemberย 28.

Six of the 225 votes against were from the UKโ€™s Brexit Party MEPs. 21 of the partyโ€™s MEPs, including party leader Nigel Farage, didnโ€™t show for the vote,ย however.


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In October, the Brexit Party sent a message to supporters that appeared to suggest it was set to acknowledge the climate emergency. But it quickly rolled back on its position, saying the mailout was a โ€œsuggested draft from a keen young stafferโ€ that โ€œwas not signed offย policyโ€.

DeSmog previously revealed how many of the Brexit Party candidates originally slated to stand in the UKโ€™s general election had promoted climate science denial.ย 

The Brexit Party did not respond to a request for comment to explain why many of its MEPs were absent, and why those who were present to vote did so against theย resolution.ย 

Of the four Conservative Party MEPs, two broke ranks with their European Conservatve and Reformists (ECR) group to vote for theย resolution.ย 

A few days before the vote, the ECR hosted a group of climate science deniers coordinated by Dutch group CLINTEL, who argued that contrary to overwhelming evidence there was no climateย emergency.

Another Tory MEP, Daniel Hannan, abstained from theย vote.

Hannanย has strong ties to lobby groups based in and around offices at 55 Tufton Street pushing to strip back environmental regulations in the name of hard Brexit. He is the founder of the Initiative for Free Trade (IFT), a thinktank that advocates โ€œthe moral case for open commerceโ€, which is based out of 57 Tufton Street and was launched by Boris Johnson in 2017.

In September 2018, the IFT launched a โ€œblueprintโ€ for a USUK free trade deal that โ€œwould see the NHS opened to foreign competition, a bonfire of consumer and environmental regulations and freedom of movement between the two countries for workers,โ€ the Guardian reported.ย 

The text of the deal was drawn up by the IFT and the libertarian US-based thinktank, the Cato Institute, which has received significant funding from the oil billionaire Koch brothers and ExxonMobil, while lobbying strongly against action to reduceย emissions.

Hannan and the Conservative Party did not respond to a request to comment for thisย story.


Read more โ€“ย 
Election 2019: Here Are All the Brexit Party’s Climate Scienceย Deniers


Six Green party MEPs, 10 Labour MEPs, and 16 Lib Dem MEPs voted for the climate emergencyย resolution.

Green party MEP for the North West of England, Gina Dowding, told DeSmog the climate emergency resolution was โ€œhighly significantโ€ as it was โ€œa declaration by the worldโ€™s second-largest economy, joining voices and calls from our young people and citizens across Europe to recognise the climate crisis and the need for urgentย action.โ€

She criticised those that voted against the resolution, saying โ€œit is astonishing that any political group or individuals would decline to support any commitment to deal with a life-support threatening situation. It is a sign of contempt for people and the Europeanย Parliament.โ€

Image: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commonsย ย CC BYSAย 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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