Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns Joins Board of Climate Science Denial Group

The backbench Conservative MP joins a growing list of influential directors at Net Zero Watch and the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
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Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns. Photo: Matt Crossick / Alamy

Conservative MP Andrea Jenkyns has become a director of Net Zero Watch (NZW), a pressure group which denies climate science and campaigns for more fossil fuel extraction.ย 

She is the latest high profile figure to ally with NZWโ€™s parent organisation, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), which is the UKโ€™s principal climate science denial group and part of the Tufton Street network of free market think tanks. Jenkyns, the MP for Morley and Outwood, will join NZWโ€™s board, according to aย press release.

Earlier this month, Allison Pearson, the Daily Telegraphโ€™s chief interviewer and a columnist at the newspaper, joined the GWPF board, where she sits alongside Conservative peer Lord (David) Frost and former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Jenkyns โ€“ who recently called for the UK to โ€œditchโ€ its net zero target โ€“ announced her new NZW role through a video claiming that, โ€œWestminster has been gripped by groupthink on climate and energy policy for far too long โ€ฆ Iโ€™m looking forward to spreading the word that there are more rational approaches to these issues.โ€

NZW campaigns against renewable energy and for more fossil fuel extraction, often doing so alongside anti-green Conservative MPs in the Net Zero Scrutiny Group.ย 

In October 2022, NZW urged the government to โ€œrecommit to fossil fuelsโ€ in response to the global energy crisis sparked by Russiaโ€™s invasion of Ukraine, with โ€œa new fleet of coal fired power stationsโ€ and more oil and gas extraction.ย 

A few months earlier, in March, NZW produced a report calling for renewable energy from wind and solar power to be โ€œwound down completelyโ€ โ€“ and, in September, NZW published two reports rejecting climate science on the greenhouse effect.

Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Caroline Lucas said that Net Zero Watch is among the groups โ€œholding back vital progress to tackle the climate emergencyโ€.

She added that itโ€™s โ€œshameful that Conservative MPs like Andrea Jenkyns, whose party is currently weighing up whether to approve the biggest undeveloped oil field in the North Sea, are at the very heart of it. Itโ€™s time to kick dirty fossil fuel-aligned interests out of our politics once and for all.โ€

โ€˜Ditch These Targetsโ€™

Jenkyns has publicly opposed the UKโ€™s legally binding target to cut emissions to net zero, which is backed by the worldโ€™s top climate scientists.ย 

At an event in Parliament on 23 March, Jenkyns said: โ€œPersonally, net zero, I think we need to ditch these targets, especially at the moment, and use whatever resources weโ€™ve got under our feet. We need to drive down energy costs for the British people, and also be self-sufficient as a nation.โ€

She described herself on Twitter last month as holding โ€œno-to-net-zero viewsโ€.

Rapidly cutting carbon emissions is necessary to limit global warming to 1.5ยฐC and avoid the worst impacts of climate change, including drought, famine, and ill health, according to the worldโ€™s leading climate science body, the UNโ€™s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).ย 

Meanwhile, according to research from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, the average food shop will cost UK households ยฃ407 more this year due to climate change and the rising price of oil and gas. The International Monetary Fund has also pointed out that the UKโ€™s energy crisis has been among the worst in the Western world due to its reliance on gas.ย 

Jenkyns was welcomed to the NZW board by its chair Neil Record, who said that she brings โ€œa welcome and fresh perspectiveโ€. He added that Jenkyns is a โ€œseasoned campaigner and understands how to get our message across to the general public.โ€

Record is a major Conservative donor, having given nearly half a million pounds to the Conservative Party since 2008. He has also funded the GWPF. In February, Record donated ยฃ10,000 to Steve Baker, a former GWPF director now serving as Minister of State for Northern Ireland.

In 2015, Record told Greenpeaceโ€™s Unearthed unit: โ€œI believe that the important scientific enquiry required for us to understand manโ€™s effect on the climate is being hampered by a monolithic โ€˜establishmentโ€™ view that the science is settled.โ€

Hanner Greer, Campaigns Manager at Good Law Project, which is investigating the โ€œmalignโ€ influence of Tufton Street groups, said it is โ€œdeeply concerningโ€ that another Conservative MP has joined Net Zero Watch, given the governmentโ€™s net zero goals.

In December 2019, Jenkyns was elected as the deputy chair of the European Research Group (ERG) โ€“ an internal Conservative faction that advocated for a โ€˜no dealโ€™ Brexit.ย She served as a junior minister in the Department for Education from July to October 2022.

Other leading figures in the ERG have included Steve Baker, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who ran for Conservative leader last year vowing to โ€œsuspend the all-consuming desire to achieve net zero by 2050โ€.ย 

DeSmog has previously reported on the extensive crossover between pro-Brexit groups and opposition to climate action.ย 

Andrea Jenkyns and the GWPF were approached for comment. 

Additional research by Phoebe Cooke

Adam Barnett - new white crop
Adam Barnett is DeSmog's UK News Reporter. He is a former Staff Writer at Left Foot Forward and BBC Local Democracy Reporter.
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Joey Grostern is a freelance climate reporter for DeSmog since April 2023. His work focuses on news media and has been covered by The Guardian, The Intercept, and The Nation. He also works freelance for Deutsche Welle and Clean Energy Wire in Berlin.

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