In the first few weeks of 2026, UK newspapers have been ablaze with sensational claims about climate policy: cutting emissions to net zero would cost up to “£9 trillion”. An electricity grid run on renewable power would cause “blackouts”. The government department tasked with climate policy needs to be “shut down”.

The claims – which were quickly debunked by climate experts and public bodies – were based on three policy papers and endorsed by the Conservative Party’s shadow energy secretary, Claire Coutinho.

But as DeSmog’s analysis shows, the reports were all authored by individuals or organisations with ties to the fossil fuel industry.

Last week, Coutinho wrote the foreword to a report – ‘It’s Broke, Fix It: Where British Energy Policy Went Wrong and How to Get it Right’ – published by the Prosperity Institute, which is owned by investors behind the right-wing broadcaster GB News.

Coutinho called the report – which was covered in The Telegraph and Express newspapers – “timely” and “insightful”.

The report advocated for the Department of Energy and Net Zero – which Coutinho previously led – to be “shut down” in order to “divorce energy policy from climate policy”. It also claimed that the “rapid build-out of gas-fired capacity, or even coal” is required to cut energy prices.

DeSmog can reveal that the report’s author, Rupert Darwall, has roles at two leading U.S. climate science denial groups, both of which have received funding from oil and gas interests.

Darwall is a senior fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics (NCEA), which was launched in 2024 by the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) with $250,000 from the Brigham Family Foundation, whose president – Ben M. “Bud” Brigham – is an oil and gas executive.

Brigham is founder and chairman of Brigham Exploration, an oil and gas management and acquisition company. He donated to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential election campaign and the Republican National Committee the same year. He’s also the founder and executive chairman of Atlas Energy Solutions, an oil and gas logistics company.

The TPPF received more than $4 million from oil and gas billionaire Charles Koch’s foundations between 1997 and 2018, according to Greenpeace USA. Charles Koch and his late brother David have been leading sponsors of climate science denial across the globe in recent decades.

Darwall is also listed as a member of the CO2 Coalition, a U.S. climate denial group which describes CO2 as “plant food” and denies the link between emissions and rising temperatures. The group received $662,000 (£481,000) from Koch foundations between 1997 and 2017.

Darwall did not respond to DeSmog’s request for comment.

Coutinho also launched a report by Watt-Logic, a company run by Kathryn Porter, an oil and gas industry consultant. Porter states on her website that she works for “businesses with projects across the electricity, gas and oil industries”.

Her report claimed that increasing renewable energy capacity in the UK will heighten the risk of blackouts – a claim rejected by the National Energy Systems Operator (NESO), which helps to plan and manage the country’s energy network.

Porter – who has also authored reports for the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK’s leading climate science denial group – did not deny that she still has oil and gas clients, when asked by DeSmog.

Coutinho also provided a supportive quote for a report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), which claimed that achieving net zero emissions could cost the UK up to £9 trillion – a figure described by experts as “fundamentally wrong”.

As DeSmog revealed, the IEA has received funding from oil majors including BP and Shell.

Amid pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, the Conservative Party under Kemi Badenoch has ditched its previous support for climate action, declaring it would be “impossible” to reach net zero by 2050, and vowing to repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act.

“The Conservatives seem to want to hold back the UK’s shift to homegrown clean energy and keep us hooked on fossil fuels, just so that a handful of oil executives can keep the profits rolling in,” said Tessa Khan, executive director of the research and campaign group Uplift.

“Delaying the energy transition increases the UK’s reliance on imported gas. The reality is, the UK has burned most of its gas and, regardless of new drilling, we are set to be dependent on imports for nearly two-thirds of our gas in just five years’ time and almost 100 percent by 2050 – unless we move to renewable energy.

“Coutinho knows – and has admitted – that more drilling won’t bring down bills, and she understands the dangers to us and future generations from unchecked climate change. We need politicians that will stand up to the anti-science, anti-renewable agenda of Donald Trump and his paymasters in the oil and gas industry”.

The Conservative Party was approached for comment.

Legatum and Darwall

Darwall wrote a book in 2017 called Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex. In interviews promoting the book he argued that the climate movement has its roots in Nazi Germany, claiming: “virtually every theme you see in the modern environmental movement, the Nazis were doing.” 

Coutinho, in her foreword to Darwall’s Prosperity Institute report, said: “I may not agree with every point Rupert makes, but as we look to a future unburdened by net zero and the Climate Change Act, the ideas in this report will be immensely useful to debate so we can chart the journey back to an energy system that puts consumers at its core.”

The Prosperity Institute (formerly the Legatum Institute) is a conservative think tank owned by UAE-based investment firm Legatum Group, which co-owns GB News alongside hedge fund boss and fossil fuel investor Paul Marshall.

The Prosperity Institute’s advisory board includes Neil Record, a Tory donor who helped to bankroll Kemi Badenoch’s 2024 Conservative leadership campaign. Record is also the director of the GWPF’s campaign arm, Net Zero Watch, which campaigns against renewable energy and backs new oil and gas extraction.

In late 2023, the Legatum Institute Foundation gave £50,000 to a Conservative Party faction run by Danny Kruger MP, who has since defected to Reform.