Rupert Darwall

Rupert Darwall

Credentials

Background

Rupert Darwall is a Consulting Director with the White House Writers Group, where he specializes in the intersection of public policy and finance.2Rupert Darwall; Consulting Director,White House Writers Group. Archived December 12, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/geBiX

Darwall is also listed as a “team member” by the CO2 Coalition, an organization that claims it is “educating thought leaders, policy makers, and the public about the important contribution made by carbon dioxide to our lives and the economy.”3Rupert Darwall,” CO2 Coalition. Archived January 24, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/xlhDI

According to its About page, the CO2 Coalition “seeks to engage in an informed and dispassionate discussion of climate change, humans’ role in the climate system, the limitations of climate models, and the consequences of mandated reductions in CO2 emissions.”4About,” CO2 Coalition. Archived January 24, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/sP83u

Darwall was previously listed as an “Expert5Experts; Rupert Darwall,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived April 13, 2013. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/HxOkO at the Centre for Policy Studies and the Texas Public Policy Foundation.6Experts; Rupert Darwall,” Texas Public Policy Foundation. Archived October 15, 2014. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/kD3A6

Darwall’s writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Prospect, and Financial Times.7Experts; Rupert Darwall,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived April 13, 2013. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/HxOkO

A 2020 opinion piece in The Hill identified Darwall as a senior fellow with the RealClear Foundation, “a nonprofit affiliate of RealClear Media Group that reports and analyzes public policy and civic issues.”8Rupert Darwall. “The coronavirus pandemic versus the climate emergency,The Hill, March 29, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/c596M

According to Darwall’s author page on RealClear Energy, he is “researching issues from international climate agreements to the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals in corporate governance.”9Rupert Darwall,” RealClear Energy. Archived January 24, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/zxFxu

The Center for Media and Democracy reported the RealClear Foundation has received millions in dollars from right wing megadonors including over $2.7. million from the secretive DonorsTrust and $1 million from its sister group Donors Capital Fund. Other funders include the Thomas W Smith Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.10Alex Kotch. “Koch Foundations Increased Media Investments in 2018,” The Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch, November 26, 2019. Archived April 6, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.vn/lpThQ

Darwall is the author of several books on climate change, including The Age of Global Warming: A History (2013) and Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex (2019).

Stance on Climate Change

March 7, 2022

In a Spectator article titled “There is no climate crisis”, Darwall wrote “it could hardly be plainer” that the IPCC’s latest report “is political advocacy barely masquerading as science”, and that “the only surprise is that the IPCC didn’t include abolishing the Second Amendment in its climate catechism”.11Rupert Darwall. “There is no climate crisis”, The Spectator, March 7, 2022. Archived January 6, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/TgHdr

In response to the IPCC’s comment that “different interests, values and worldviews can be reconciled if everyone works together”, Darwall wrote: “This isn’t science. It’s climate kumbaya”.

Similarly, while criticising one of IPCC’s data models, Darwall wrote: 

“If there were a genuine climate crisis, the IPCC wouldn’t feel impelled to surreptitiously turn the dial to claim that there is one […] The fact that it does so constitutes strong evidence for the non-existence of a climate crisis.”

He continued: 

“The sole value of the new report is that it shows just how deeply the IPCC has sunk into the anti-scientific business of advocacy and green ideology. With its declaration that net zero creates the opportunity for societal transformation, the IPCC’s 1.5 degree special report was bad. This new one is even worse.”

April 29, 2021

Darwall wrote an article for RealClearEnergy criticising US President Joe Biden’s strategy for decarbonising the economy by 2050. Claiming that net zero was “a euphemism for economic dislocation and losing your job,” Darwall disputed that reducing emissions was necessary, claiming that the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on global temperatures had “offered no scientific, economic, or ethical justification for its adoption of the 1.5-degree target.”12Rupert Darwall. “The Net-Zero Shell Game and Joe Biden’s Deceptions,” Real Clear Energy, April 29, 2021. Archived May 10, 2021. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/hhHgv

Elsewhere in the article, Darwall claimed that: “The 1.5-degree limit has nothing to do with science and everything to do with politics and green ideology,” asserting that it had only been adopted due to an “unscientific PR campaign” by small nations who were dissatisfied by the earlier 2 degrees limit set at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.

January 28, 2013

In an article titled ”Second-Term Climate Change” in the National Review Online, Darwall wrote:

It was characteristically bold of President Obama in his second inaugural to speak of the overwhelming judgment of science on global warming, given that we are well into the second decade of average global temperatures that indicate no statistically significant warming trend. The temperature standstill was not predicted by climate scientists, leaving them struggling to rationalize its significance […]

Even if climate science is as robust as the president asserts, in the absence of a global agreement on carbon emissions, mandates and subsidies to produce renewable energy will have negligible impact on global temperatures and on the weather. A 1998 study on the effect of the Kyoto Protocol estimated that, if fully implemented, it would delay the rise in global temperatures by four to 14 years over the course of the current century and have a minimal effect on the rise of sea levels. However, the cost of the attempt would be at the expense of the competitiveness of American business and American taxpayers and consumers.”13Rupert Darwall. ”Second-Term Climate Change,” National Review, January 28, 2013. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/7rIsD

Key Quotes

October 14, 2022

Darwall was quoted in an Epoch Times article titled “Nazis started forced renewable energy transition, expert says” claiming that “the first political party to have a renewable energy program was the Nazi party”, and that this development was “a fundamental reaction against the ‘original sin of the Industrial Revolution’”.14Rupert Darwall. “Nazi’s started forced renewable energy transition, expert says”, The Epoch Times, October 14, 2022. Archived October 14, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/D3i1J

According to Darwall, “when the Nazi party fell, the Nazi and Neo-Nazi environmental leaders had to find new ways to further their “energy revolution”.  Therefore, modern-day environmentalism is shaped by “Nazis originally leading the Green Party, by Nazi philosophy and their willingness to engage in complete control and tyranny”. Equally, the “greening of Germany” and the “greening of Europe” is “based not on science, but on “insane green ideology” and “control”.

According to Epoch Times journalist Katie Spence, who summarised his comments, Darwall claimed that society’s transition towards renewable energy “is not based on science but is instead rooted in Nazi environmentalism where the present needs to be ‘sacrificed for the sake of some better future. A purer, cleaner, greener future’”.

Spence continued: “Darwall specified that […] environmentalists invented ‘imaginary catastrophes’ as propaganda tools to stop debate” because “they’re fully committed to fundamentally changing society and purposefully reducing the standard and quality of life”.

May 2, 2022

In an article titled “The Political Necessity of Trump’s Challenge of Climate Hysteria”, Darwall celebrated Donald Trump’s speech at a Heritage Foundation event in Florida where the former U.S. President referred to “the climate hysteria hoax”.15Rupert Darwall. “Commentary: The Political Necessity of Trump’s Challenge of Climate Hysteria”, The Ohio Star, May 2, 2022. Archived May 2, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/8ymni

Darwall began by positing that “as an ideology, environmentalism shares many features with organised religion”, adding that “under climate alarmism, the future, as it had been under communism, once again becomes ‘the great category of blackmail’”.

Environmentalism, according to Darwall, is not “grounded in science and rationality” and “isn’t about reason and evidence”. Instead, it is “a powerful ideology opposed to freedom and capitalism for its success in bringing hitherto undreamt levels of prosperity to the masses”.

He also argued that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is “a purely arbitrary target lacking any scientific or economic justification” and claimed that the IPCC is “now acting as the supreme fount of green ideology”.

September 30, 2013

Darwall wrote in The Wall Street Journal: 

If climate scientists are really as confident in their understanding of the climate as the IPCC‘s 95% confidence headline figure is meant to suggest, they would put a firm date by when the pause must end and temperatures bounce back to what the IPCC claims is the long-term upward trend. All too predictably, the IPCC avoids such a hard-edged test […] The body’s flagrant disregard for the InterAcademy Council’s findings and its reluctance to address the 15-year warming pause are symptomatic of a failure of leadership. The conclusion is unavoidable: The IPCC is unreformable and the Fifth Assessment Report should be the IPCC‘s last.”16Rupert Darwall. “The Political Science of Global Warming,” Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2013. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/S79kP

September 26, 2013

In a New York Post article titled “Obama administration killing jobs pointlessly,” Darwall wrote:

The environmental laws of the 1970s aimed to clean up America’s air and waters. They were about curbing local pollution and making the environment better for Americans. Cutting carbon-dioxide emissions is completely different. Unless the rest of the world joins in, it’s pointless for America to act by itself. Remember, we’re talking about global warming.

“Acting alone, the sacrifice of blue-collar jobs is entirely about political symbolism and appeasing wealthy green activists.”17Rupert Darwall. “Obama administration killing jobs pointlessly,” New York Post, September 26, 2013. Archived September 11, 2014.

June 6, 2013

Darwall wrote a Wall Street Journal article titled  “Global Warming and the Gipper,” where he declared:

Might it be that it was Ronald Reagan and not Barack Obama who began to slow the rise of the seas? That is one conclusion that could be drawn from a new paper by Canadian physicist Qing-Bin Lu of Ontario’s University of Waterloo. Instead of carbon dioxide emissions, Mr. Lu argues that ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other halocarbons caused global warming. Thanks to the Reagan administration and the 1987 Montreal Protocol, CFCs have been phased out by developed countries. After a lag, Mr. Lu argues that global temperatures peaked around 2002 and predicts they are set to gradually fall over the next five to seven decades.

“Upholders of the consensus argue that increased carbon dioxide is the only way to explain rising global temperatures. Now there is a competing explanation, with a chronology that better fits the evidence.”18Rupert Darwall. “Global Warming and the Gipper,” Wall Street Journal, June 6, 2013. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/5AywX

Key Actions

September 13, 2022

In a Spectator article titled “China, not America, has the real emissions problem”, Darwall criticised “the adoption of increasingly stringent and unrealistic emissions-reduction targets by the nations of the West”, arguing that “what America and the West do is of diminishing relevance to global emissions and therefore future global temperatures”.19Rupert Darwall. “China, not America, has the real emissions problem”, The Spectator, September 13, 2022. Archived January 6, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/emQRe

He also claimed that the Paris Agreement’s goal to avoid global warming exceeding 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and efforts to “limit that rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius” had no grounding in science or economics. 

Darwall added that renewable energy “constrains growth and undermines America’s ability to protect is [sic] position in the world” and “raises costs makes energy scarce and leads to structural under-investment in the generating capacity needed to keep the lights on and the electric grid stable”. 

July 16, 2022

In a Spectator article titled “Will the next Tory leader finally ditch net zero?” Darwall equated “the claim that we can decarbonise the economy and have strong economic growth and rising living standards all at the same time” to “cakeism – the political philosophy that denies the existence of trade offs and asserts you can have it all”.20Rupert Darwall. “Will the next Tory leader finally ditch net zero?”, The Spectator, July 16, 2022. Archived July 16, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/X9Rhj

Writing during the Conservative leadership election, he added: “wind and solar energy are inherently inefficient ways of generating electricity” and that “net zero guarantees the continuation of Britain’s dismal productivity record”.

Darwall continued:

“Pursuing net zero is not a growth strategy; it is, to borrow from Michael Porter, a choice not to prioritise economic growth. The structural adjustments required of net zero are colossal and will involve pain, particularly for people on low incomes and those losing their jobs in the transition”.

Darwall also criticised the “windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas production”, before endorsing Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch, two leadership candidates who expressed anti-net zero views. 

May 24, 2022

Darwall wrote an article for the New York Post in response to HSBC banker Stuart Kirk being suspended for a presentation in which he made controversial remarks about climate change, including a slide titled “why investors need not worry about climate risk”.21Rupert Darwall. “ESG’s power grows as banker is cancelled for talking sense on climate change”, New York Post, May 24, 2022. Archived May 24, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/YxQVo

Attempting to compare the brutal treatment of mediaeval heretics to the treatment of climate deniers, Darwall wrote: 

“Four hundred years ago, people were burnt at the stake for believing the wrong things about religion. Today, they get fired for questioning the climate-change catechism.”

He continued: “As Stuart Kirk has discovered, telling the truth is much more dangerous than playing it safe by recycling routine falsehoods about climate risk and existential threats. Distorted, alarmist climate reporting is the norm – and getting worse.”

Additionally, Darwall maintained that the small island state Tuvalu “is not sinking. Quite the reverse”, as well as criticising “Woke bankers on Wall Street” and “purveyors of scary climate scenarios in the Fed, financial regulators and the media”.

April 19, 2022

In an article titled “Woke Investors Threaten the West’s Security”, Darwall criticised the steering group of the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, whose members manage more than $10.4 trillion of assets, for “issuing a statement urging Western governments not to sacrifice climate goals for energy security” in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.22Rupert Darwall. “Woke Investors Threaten the West’s Security”, The Epoch Times, April 19, 2022. Archived April 20, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/3bhUd

“What, one might ask, is the standing of asset managers to opine on national security matters?” wrote Darwall. He also criticised the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for apparently “working hand in glove with woke climate investors”, because “despite the war in Ukraine, there has been no letup in investor pressure on oil and gas companies to scale down their operations”.

March 3, 2022

In an article titled “John Kerry: Putin’s Useful Climate Idiot”, Darwall wrote:

“Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine marks the end of the West’s Era of Illusions. It was an era in which Western elites obsessed about solving climate change because the climate crisis was far more dangerous than issues of war and peace and the stability of the international system. They even convinced themselves that climate change causes war, so climate change policy could double as national security policy.”23Rupert Darwall. “John Kerry: Putin’s Useful Climate Idiot”, Real Clear Energy, March 3, 2022. Archived April 12, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Qzzvu

He also argued that “a strong case can be made that Russian climate scientists” who are “disinclined to believe there’s a climate crisis”, might “have a better understanding of climate science and the likely impact of rising levels of carbon dioxide on global temperatures than their colleagues in the West”. 

At different points in the article he called John Kerry a “deluded climate relic” and said that “when it comes to the science of climate change, there can be few people quite as gullible and simpleminded as John Kerry”.

Darwall concluded by writing that Putin’s invasion “puts into perspective the folly of those, like Kerry, who confuse imaginary crises with real ones”.

March 2, 2022

In an article titled “Standing up to Putin means ditching net-zero”, Darwall criticised the Biden administration’s “anti-fossil-fuel policies” which he claimed “will progressively degrade America’s capacity to prevail against its geopolitical adversaries”.24Rupert Darwall. “Standing up to Putin means ditching net zero”, American Greatness, March 2, 2022. Archived October 15, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/cFttS

He also described net zero as a “barely alive objective” saying that “the basic math of the West versus the Rest’s greenhouse gas emissions means that what the West does has a diminishing effect on the trajectory of global emissions”.

November 15, 2021

In an article for TribLIVE, Darwall criticised countries’ focus on green finance at COP26, claiming that discussions about climate financial risk were “a smoke screen for a green power grab”.25Rupert Darwall. “Rupert Darwall: Net zero and green financial repression,” TribLIVE, November 15, 2021. Archived December 17, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/hZaWb

Darwall also said that rather than imposing carbon taxes, governments “prefer to outsource the heavy lifting to the world of finance in the hope that it will provide a pain-free path to the net zero goal.”

He added: “Using the financial system as the principal policy instrument of decarbonization will have unintended consequences and create immense distortions that threaten global financial stability and the functioning of a commercial society.”

The article also appeared on RealClearEnergy on November 9, 2021.26Rupert Darwall. “Net Zero and Green Financial Repression,”RealClear Energy, November 9, 2021. Archived December 22, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/L4MJj

December 10, 2021

In an opinion piece for Newsweek, Darwall wrote that Britain’s goal to “keep 1.5 alive” as hosts of COP26 had resulted in its “humiliation”. He also criticised US President Joe Biden, saying that “his election pledge to legislate a net-zero enforcement mechanism by the end of his first term has gone nowhere.”27Rupert Darwall. “In the Race for ‘Climate Leadership,’ Everyone’s a Loser,” Newsweek, December 10, 2021. Archived December 17, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/trJeh

Darwall also said that countries like Norway and Japan were “energy realists” for their plans to continue producing oil and gas during the transition to net zero.28Rupert Darwall. “In the Race for ‘Climate Leadership,’ Everyone’s a Loser,” Newsweek, December 10, 2021. Archived December 17, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/trJeh

September 30, 2021

In an opinion piece for RealClearEnergy, Darwall claimed that Britain’s energy crisis has been “ten years in the making” due to the government’s investments in wind capacity and ban on fracking for methane gas.29Rupert Darwall. “Boris Johnson Bets on Wind,” RealClear Energy, September 30, 2021. Archived December 22, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/L4MJj

Darwall also stated that policies which “suppress” the domestic production of natural gas are “self-embargoing new domestic production” and giving more power to international gas suppliers such as Russian energy company Gazprom, writing: 

“It’s not Gazprom’s job to make life easier for feckless, climate-posing British politicians but to maximize the selling price it obtains for its natural gas. If high energy prices force energy-intensive industries to close and inflict a miserable winter and a savage cost of living crisis on poorer Britons, that’s their problem, not Gazprom’s.”

May 2021

Darwall wrote a report for RealClearFoundation which criticised the implementation of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria for businesses, which would allow them to gauge the impact of their investments on environmental sustainability.30Rupert Darwall. “Capitalism, Socialism and ESG,” RealClearFoundation. Archived May 17, 2021. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/g1SXY

The report stated: “The weaponisation of finance by billionaire climate activists, foundations, and NGOs threatens to end capitalism as we know it by degrading its ability to function as an economic system that generates higher living standards,” adding: “This usurpation of the political prerogatives of democratic government invites a populist backlash.”

April 27, 2021

Darwall wrote an article for Real Clear Energy which argued that decarbonising the economy would lead to a less affluent future. He wrote: “Decarbonization is theft; it takes from current generations in the hope of moderating global warming for unborn generations,” adding: “Producing energy without hydrocarbons costs more and requires more resources. It means slower growth – the bane of Millennials since the financial crash.” Elsewhere in the article, Darwall argued that decarbonisation would “suck the oxygen out of already weakened economies”.31Rupert Darwall. “Has Climate Change Become a Tool of Social Control?Real Clear Energy, April 27, 2021. Archived May 4, 2021. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/nYCao

Arguing that the embrace of environmentalism by younger people was indicative of ideological conformism rather than independent thought, Darwall cited a poll by the Global Warming Policy Foundation which showed that despite holding more extreme views on climate change, young people made up a significant proportion of unconcerned respondents.32(Press Release). “Perceptions of climate impacts at odds with scientific data,” The Global Warming Policy Forum, April 1, 2021. Archived May 4, 2021. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/5qrRH

March 6, 2021

Darwall wrote an article for Real Clear Energy, crossposted to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which criticised Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney for stating that investments in renewable energy could offset fossil fuel emissions. Darwall described Carney as a “leading light of the climate-finance oligarchy, positioned at the nexus of politics and finance,” asserting that bankers and politicians were cynically attempting to profit from the political viability of decarbonisation, and did not hold sincere commitments to counteracting climate change.33Rupert Darwall. “Rupert Darwall: The climate agenda is a money-making business for the elites,” The Global Warming Policy Foundation, March 6, 2021. Archived March 8, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/9C2Y1

February 26, 2021

Darwall wrote an article for Real Clear Energy commenting on power outages which had occurred in Texas following an ice storm. Darwall argued that renewable energy infrastructure had been responsible for the outages, stating: “It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that increasing dependence on weather-dependent, weather-exposed power generation is a formula for grid unreliability and blackouts.” He added: “The catastrophic system failure this month was a disaster waiting to happen. The greater the reliance on wind, the more devastating will be the consequences of the weather not being right when demand surges.”34Rupert Darwall. “Building Back Better Means Blackouts and Fragile Grids,” Real Clear Energy, February 26, 2021. Archived March 8, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/5E8vB

Darwall also criticised US President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, describing it as “a prelude to more draconian climate policies than envisaged under the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan.”

February 22, 2021

Darwall wrote an article for Real Clear Energy which claimed that US President Joe Biden’s climate policies would have an inflationary impact on the economy. He stated: “Replacing energy derived from hydrocarbons with wind and solar energy shrinks the economy’s productive potential. Additionally, decarbonizing energy means that it becomes more expensive to make stuff and do things, like heating homes and powering factories.” He added: “by putting more wind and solar on the grid, it makes the grid more fragile and pushes up energy costs, injecting cost-push inflation into the economy.”35Rupert Darwall. “Biden’s Economy Will Be a Train Wreck,” Real Clear Energy, February 17, 2021. Archived February 22, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/HLX8z

Darwall cited a blog post by economist Mark J. Perry from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) which referred to solar panels and windmills as “inefficient, high cost and intermittent.”36Mark J. Perry. “Biden’s plan to create millions of energy jobs might work, but only because renewables are so labor-intensive and only at a very high cost,” AEI, November 26, 2020. Archived February 22, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/g9SWo

January 11, 2021

Darwall wrote an article for Real Clear Energy criticising a report by the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), a financial regulator, which predicted the substantial impact that extreme weather could have on the financial system. Darwall described this conclusion as “fear mongering,” and “a travesty.” He added:37Rupert Darwall. “Climate Risk and Financial Stability,” Real Clear Energy, January 11, 2021. Archived January 18, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/tMaef

the report’s statement that a world racked by ‘frequent and devastating shocks from climate change cannot sustain the fundamental conditions supporting our financial system’ isn’t supported by any evidence – and on examination turns out to be preposterous.”

Darwall cited a paper by climate “lukewarmer” Bjorn Lomborg, which downplayed the severity of climate change-induced extreme weather, stating: “all kinds of disasters are likely to become bigger as there are more people and more wealth in the path of danger.”38Bjorn Lomborg. “Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies (PDF),” Technological Forecasting and Social Change. Archived January 18, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/LTzpk

December 21, 2020

Darwall wrote an article for Real Clear Energy characterising Western environmentalists as stooges for the Chinese state, writing: “This pattern, wherein the West’s enemies use the environmental movement – whether NGOs like Greenpeace, foundations, or “concerned scientists,” to undermine Western interests – is now being repeated, this time in respect to China.”39Rupert Darwall. “China’s Green NGO Climate Propaganda Enablers,” Real Clear Energy, December 21, 2020. Archived December 22, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/A84Dc Darwall cited a report by ‘China watcher’ Patricia Adams for the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which stated that: “China’s embrace of Western environmentalists is also understandable. To borrow a line attributed to Lenin, these environmentalists are the CCP’s ‘useful idiots.’”40Patricia Adams. “The Red and the Green: China’s Useful Idiots,” The Global Warming Policy Foundation, December 11, 2020. Archived December 14, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/HjjOS

He concluded: “Obsessive focus on climate change threatens the vital interests of the United States by desensitizing national security professionals to geopolitical realities and subordinating them to the illusion of planetary salvation. China and its NGO allies won’t do anything to disabuse them of that illusion.”

October 29, 2020

In an article for Real Clear Energy entitled, “Suckered by Big Wind in the UK”, Darwall commented on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to power every home with wind energy by 2030. Darwall stated that, “because the government auctions off only as much capacity as it reckons the country needs, it will be forced to let Big Wind off the hook and allow it to charge what it wants. For wind investors, it’s a one-way bet – paid for by electricity consumers and the economy as a whole”.41Rupert Darwall. “Suckered by Big Wind in the UK”, Real Clear Energy, October 29, 2020. Archived November 2, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/Ni3Of

The article cited a paper by retired University of Edinburgh economics professor Gordon Hughes, written for the GWPF, which argued that, as a result of the Government’s policies, “the ultimate patsy at the poker table is the British public. Given the past record of UK ministers and officials in the energy field, this seems to be the more likely outcome. The only real doubt is how the capitulation will be dressed up and what the implications will be for the UK’s economy.”42Professor Gordon Hughes. “Who’s The Patsy?The GWPF, Archived November 2, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/xtXGQ

The article also cited a paper from Briefings for Britain, a blog composed of academics and climate science sceptics, which was co-written by Hughes and the GWPF’s energy editor and climate science denier Dr. John Constable. The paper stated that it was “demonstrably false” that wind energy prices were falling, arguing that “audited accounts show that far from getting cheaper, wind power is actually becoming more expensive. The failure of the British civil service to detect this fact and, hence, to protect the consumer and taxpayer from the consequences of the looming failure of the renewables sector raises important questions about the analytic competence of the Whitehall machine”.43John Constable and Professor Gordon Hughes. “The Costs of Offshore Wind Power: Blindness and Insight”, Briefings for Britain, September 21, 2020. Archived November 2, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/1XnJY

July 3, 2020

Darwall wrote an article for The Hill criticising an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which advocated for stabilising global temperatures at 1.5 degrees C by reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. He wrote: “Before businesses embark on costly emissions cuts, they should read the fine print of the IPCC’s 1.5°C report. There, they will find a blueprint for the extinction of capitalism as we know it. Indeed, the 1.5°C report is the most ideological of any IPCC report so far.”44Rupert Darwall. “Growth will be a thing of the past if businesses choose ‘net zero’,” The Hill, July 3, 2020. Archived February 8, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/ZSakT

Elsewhere in the article, Darwall stated that efforts to decarbonise the economy would lead to “a contraction that makes the Great Depression of the 1930s look like a mild recession,” adding: “There was more rationality to Soviet-style central planning, which at least had the aim of producing something of value rather than producing nothing.”

Darwall also characterised environmental targets as an antidemocratic imposition, writing: “Climate activists who lose at the ballot box seek to politicize private companies and turn them into tools to achieve public-policy ends — ends that rightfully belong in the domain of government.”

May 6, 2020

Darwall wrote an article for The National Review criticising an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which stated that global warming above 1.5C could lead to islands becoming submerged underwater. Darwall claimed there was “no science behind 1.5°C and the sinking-island hypothesis,” arguing that the report “might as well serve as a blueprint for the extinction of capitalism”.45Rupert Darwall. “Net-Zero Greenhouse-Gas Emissions, and Extinction Capitalism,” The National Review, May 6, 2020. Archived February 2, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/pONZS

Elsewhere in the article, Darwall argued that the Net Zero decarbonisation requirement was  “being used to bully American corporations into aligning their business strategies with the Paris agreement and force them to commit to eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.”

May 6, 2020

In an article for The National Review, Darwall argued that efforts to limit global warming would require an economic shutdown similar to the COVID-19 lockdown, stating that, “shutting down the whole global economy is the only way of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Centigrade, Yvo de Boer, the former United Nations climate chief, warned in the runup to the 2015 Paris climate conference. Thanks to COVID-19 we now have an inkling of what that looks like”. 

Darwall also argued that, “the moral case for capitalism rests on its prodigious ability to raise living standards and transform the material conditions of mankind for the better. To climate-shame corporations without the sanction of law or regulation will extinguish the economic dynamism that justifies capitalism. Remove its capacity to do so, and we will have entered a post-capitalist era. This is how capitalism ends.”46Rupert Darwall, Net-Zero Greenhouse-Gas Emissions, and Extinction Capitalism, The National Review, May 6, 2020. Archived October 5, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/pONZS

May 5, 2020

Darwall wrote an article for the Telegraph arguing that the UK’s net-zero emissions target threatened to “derail” the UK’s post-COVID-19 recovery. He wrote:47Rupert Darwall. “Net zero mania threatens to derail our lockdown recoveryTelegraph, May 5, 2020. Archived July 7, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Aztrg

Fortunately net zero isn’t going to happen whatever politicians here might think. The West’s pre-pandemic emissions account for around one quarter of global emissions. Buying into net zero will turn Europe into a continent of zombie economies, but the rest of the world isn’t going to follow.

The Prime Minister has only one chance to ensure rapid and sustained economic recovery from the lockdown – and that is to scrap every obstacle that stands in the way of economic growth, the biggest of all being the net zero climate noose.”48Rupert Darwall. “Net zero mania threatens to derail our lockdown recoveryTelegraph, May 5, 2020. Archived July 7, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Aztrg

Darwall also argued that decarbonisation “inflicts costs on the poorest in society” and claimed that computers used by scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been “running too hot and over-predicting warming since 2000”.49Rupert Darwall. “Net zero mania threatens to derail our lockdown recoveryTelegraph, May 5, 2020. Archived July 7, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Aztrg

March 29, 2020

Darwall wrote an opinion piece for The Hill in which he argued that the coronavirus pandemic showed that climate change was not a real emergency.50Rupert Darwall. “The coronavirus pandemic versus the climate emergency,The Hill, March 29, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/c596M

Darwall asserted that the global warming estimates produced by the Toronto climate conference in 1988 had not proven true (they have), reiterated the argument that climate change is on par with the environmental change humans have always adapted to, and accused the IPCC of catastrophizing climate change to push governments to action.51Rupert Darwall. “The coronavirus pandemic versus the climate emergency,The Hill, March 29, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/c596M

“One thing hasn’t changed and won’t change: Catastrophizing climate change for political ends,” Darwall wrote. “It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the inability to distinguish between a genuine crisis and an imagined one in the midst of the worst pandemic in a century is a manifestation of a collective psychological disorder.”52Rupert Darwall. “The coronavirus pandemic versus the climate emergency,The Hill, March 29, 2020. Archive.ph URL: https://archive.ph/c596M

March 10, 2019

Darwall wrote an article in the Washington Post entitled “When There’s Too Much Sun and Wind,” arguing that the “biggest danger of renewable energy is oversupply.”53Rupert Darwall. “When There’s Too Much Sun and Wind,” Washington Post, March 10, 2019. Archived March 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Fa9IE

November 22, 2018

Darwall authored a report published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK’s most prominent climate science denial group, which was launched at an event in the House of Commons.54Ten Years On, UK Climate Change Act Is Harming The Poor,” GWPF, November 22, 2018. Archived July 8, 2020. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/22W4O

The report, titled “The Climate Change Act at Ten: History’s most expensive virtual signal,” argued that the country’s 2008 Climate Change Act was “foolish” and that “if truth is the first casualty of war, the poor are the biggest casualties of the CCA”.55Rupert Darwall. “The Climate Change Act At Ten: History’s most expensive virtual signal,” GWPF, November 22, 2018. Archived July 8, 2020. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

May 9, 2018

The Washington Post reported that, in November, Darwall had forwarded Scott Pruitt an unreleased Competitive Enterprise Institute paper titled “A Veneer of Certainty Stoking Climate Alarm.” Darwall told EPA team aides that his paper was the “best go-to justification for Administrator Pruitt’s red/blue team appraisal.” The information came to light from newly released emails and internal documents from the Environmental Protection Agency.“56Emails show EPA turned to climate skeptics to craft ‘red team-blue team’ exercise,” The Washington Post, May 9, 2018. Archived May 15, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.li/N702L

October 3, 2017

Darwall published a book titled Green Tyranny: Exposing the Totalitarian Roots of the Climate Industrial Complex. Darwall also published an adapted excerpt from the book at the National Review where he asserts that the statement “the science is settled. We must act” is  “unscientific in its premise and authoritarian in its consequence.”57Rupert Darwall. “How media bias aids the Left’s totalitarian climate-change crusade,” National Review, November 1, 2017. Archived December 11, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/L58jn

July 5, 2015

Rupert Darwall published an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal titled, “Obama’s Renewable-Energy Fantasy.” Darwall wrote “there is no rational justification for policies favoring renewables,” and that “there is no objective cost-benefit analysis that could justify the president’s [Obama] target for renewable energy.”

Citing Bill Gates’ June 25, 2015 interview with the Financial Times,58Gates to double investment in renewable energy projects,” Financial Times, June 26, 2015. Archived January 24, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/FMfqe Darwall claimed, “current renewables are dead-end technologies.”59Rupert Darwall. “Obama’s Renewable-Energy Fantasy,” The Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2015. Archived August 12, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/1QAaS

They [renewables] are unreliable. Battery storage is inadequate. Wind and solar output depends on the weather. The cost of decarbonization using today’s technology is ‘beyond astronomical,’ Mr. Gates concluded.”60Rupert Darwall. “Obama’s Renewable-Energy Fantasy,” The Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2015. Archived August 12, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/1QAaS

Darwall concluded the op-ed by stating “Mr. Obama’s renewable target is a triumph for Shumacher’s Buddhist economics—which amounts to being poor and staying poor. It does not produce jobs, growth or prosperity.”61Rupert Darwall. “Obama’s Renewable-Energy Fantasy,” The Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2015. Archived August 12, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/1QAaS

December, 2014

Rupert Darwall was a contributor to the book Climate Change: The Facts published by the Institute of Public Affairs and featuring “22 essays on the science, politics and economics of the climate change debate.” The Institute of Public Affairs, while not revealing most of its funders, is known to have received funding from mining magnate Gina Rinehart and at least one major tobacco company.62Institute of Public Affairs,” SourceWatch. Accessed May 27, 2015.

The book includes essays and articles from a range of climate change skeptics, with contributors including the following:

According to Editor Alan Moran in a post at Catallaxy Files blog on Climate Change: the facts 2014, Rupert Darwall “reviews the farce of the 2009 Copenhagen confer­ence and the subsequent mini-conferences. He notes the veto imposed on costly actions by the increasingly important third world nations, con­trasting this with the revolutionary outcome that the IPCC operatives are planning to emerge from Paris in 2015.”63Alan Moran. “Climate Change: the facts 2014,” Catallaxy Files, December 16, 2014. Archived October 27, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/501Yi

September 25, 2014

Rupert Darwall attends the “At the Crossroads; Energy & Climate Policy Summit” in Houston, Texas, hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation and The Heritage Foundation. Darwall presents in “Panel III: History, Politics, and Economics,” with Marc Morano and Stephen Moore.64Rupert Darwall. “Speakers,” At the Crossroads; Energy & Climate Policy Summit, Texas Public Policy Foundation, The Heritage Foundation, September 25/26, 2014. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/GUScV

September 24, 2014

Rupert Darwall presents a lecture on his book, The Age of Global Warming: A History, at The Heritage Foundation’s event:

2014

Rupert Darwall published a report titled, “An Unsettling Climate: Global-warming proponents betray science by shutting down debate,” published by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, which DeSmog reported as having received $33.1 million in funding from 2003 to 2010, or 6% of the United States’ total income distribution of climate change countermovement organizations.65Rupert Darwall. “An Unsettling Climate: Global-warming proponents betray science by shutting down debate,” City Journal (Manhattan Institute publication), Summer 2014. Archived February 3, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/3iPSX

September 26, 2013

Rupert Darwall attended the Heartland Institute’s “Heartland Author Series,” and presented his new book The Age of Global Warming: A History

The event page of Heartland’s Author Series described Darwall’s book as the first “to tell the full story of the concerns over global warming and put the movement into its historical context,” including, “how science became the spear carrier of the environmental movement and global warming its most powerful argument […] how politics ‘settled the science’ of global warming in 1992 when the governments of the world agreed to the UN climate change convention at the Rio Earth Summit,” and “why 19th century predictions of eco-doom turned out to be wrong—but are still believed.”66Heartland Author Series: The Age of Global Warming – Rupert Darwall,” Heartland Institute, September 26, 2013. Archived September 11, 2014. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/knb0R

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According to a search of Google Scholar, Rupert Darwall has not published any climate science research in peer-reviewed journals.71Rupert Darwall,” Google Scholar search.

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