Matt 'King Coal' Ridley

About the Series

Matt Ridley is a powerhouse of climate science denial in Britain. The self-styled ‘Rational Optimist’ is an advisor to Lord Nigel Lawson’s secretly funded charity, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), and acts as a one-man think tank to his brother-in-law, the sacked environment secretary Owen Paterson. Ridley writes frequently in the Wall Street Journal and The Times promoting fossil fuels while at the same time earning considerable wealth from coal mining.

At the beginning of 2015, the landed aristocrat started work on two new profitable opencast coal mines. These are situated close to his Grade I listed stately home and acres of beautiful national park that make up a 8,500-acre estate which the White-Ridley family has owned in Northumbria since 1700. The peer’s Blagdon Estate, held by a family trust, today covers a significant part of the open mines at Shotton and Brenkley Lane, north of Newcastle, which together contain 8.3m tonnes of coal, worth an estimated £336m on the spot market.  This DeSmog UK investigative series exposes these vested interests.

In This Series

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Adam Ramsay, co-editor of openDemocracy, asks: Is the Times allowing a wealthy coal–baron to push them into misleading their readers about dodgy climate change denying science? The Times is perhaps...
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The coal mining company working on climate denier Matt Ridley's country estate tried and failed during a court case yesterday to impose £100,000 in costs on eight protesters who had successfully cl...
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Matt Ridley has become embroiled in the dollars-for-denial scandal currently engulfing a British climate denial think tank with his position on the advisory board of Sense About Science looking inc...
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A coal mining company with open-cast operations on climate denier Matt Ridley's land has just been announced as the sponsor for the ‘Green Business of the Year’ award at this year’s Newcastle Busin...
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Lord Lawson’s climate science denying Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) has been forced to declared Matt Ridley’s financial interest in coal mining. Self-style climate ‘lukewarmist’ Matt Ridl...
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They slipped into place under the cover of darkness. With bicycle D-locks around their necks chained to diggers in the middle of the UK’s largest open-cast coal mine, and arms sealed inside concret...
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EXCLUSIVE Protesters locked themselves to a 500-tonne excavator and chained themselves together to blockade an open cast mine today on the family estate of Viscount Matt Ridley, a climate denier an...
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Matt ‘King Coal’ Ridley was seriously concerned that his vested interests in open cast mining would cloud his judgement on climate science, the Tory peer confirmed in a remarkable interview. The...
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British climate denier and coal baron Matt Ridley is the most cited individual in coal giant Peabody Energy’s official submission to the White House addressing the company’s concerns regarding new ...
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This article has been cross-posted from HotWhopper. Was it Pope Francis who pushed deniers over the edge? Is it the climate negotiations taking place this year? Matt Ridley, a science denier from t...
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Aristocrat and self-styled climate ‘contrarian’ Matt Ridley has steadfastly refused to disclose how much cash he makes from the large opencast mines operating on his family estate. The free market...
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This is a guest post by US-based environmental communications group, Climate Nexus. Longtime climate contrarian and “coal baron” Matt Ridley returns to the Wall Street Journal to try to argue again...
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The ‘Lady of the North’, Northumberlandia, has been hailed by her supporters as an iconic gateway for the region, attracting visitors from all around the world, writes Matteo Civillini. Standing 34...
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It has only been one month into the New Year and already so much has happened. We’ve scored some amazing achievements in the fight to clear the PR pollution clouding climate science. So as we head ...
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The latest exclusive from our #MattKingCoal investigation shows how climate denier Matt Ridley has been impacted by European carbon emissions regulations… Lord Ridley, the aristocratic farmer and s...
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BY BRENDAN MONTAGUE, KYLA MANDEL AND RICHARD HEASMAN Lord Ridley, a landed aristocrat and prominent climate denier, will earn an estimated £4.1 million each year from opencast coal mines on his Bla...
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Lord Matt Ridley, a card carrying member of Britain’s one percent, is responsible for one per cent of the entire country’s CO2. Lord Ridley is a powerhouse of climate denial in Britain – and a lead...
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Lord Ridley, the landed aristocrat and prominent climate denier, will start work this year on two new profitable opencast coal mines close to his Grade I listed stately home and acres of beautiful ...
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“I have declared my interest in the coal mining on my family’s land whenever and wherever relevant both in my writing and in Parliament. “However, I generally argue in favour of gas, which is coal’...
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Christmas lore is that children who are good get candy, and children who are bad get a lump of coal. The myth might well originate from Victorian England, where a pan of burning coal would be kept ...