Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is set to speak at an event today organised by a pro-Trump think tank and held in the home of the UK’s main climate science denial group, DeSmog can reveal.
Farage, whose party campaigns to scrap the UK’s goal of achieving net zero emissions, is the star speaker at the event, described as a “ground-breaking conversation about climate policy”.
The event has been convened by the UK-EU branch of the Heartland Institute, a U.S. group that has been at the forefront of denying the scientific evidence for man-made climate change, and hosted in 55 Tufton Street – the home of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which claims that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.
The Heartland Institute received at least $676,000 between 1998 and 2007 from U.S. oil major ExxonMobil, and has accepted donations from foundations linked to the owners of Koch Industries – a fossil fuel giant and a leading sponsor of climate science denial.
Heartland has close ties to Donald Trump’s administration, having advised several government agencies during the president’s first term. In February, the group’s UK-EU chief Lois Perry – who is speaking alongside Farage today – claimed that Heartland has “very strong affiliations” with “certain big individuals” in Trump’s team.
Perry told DeSmog that today’s panel is Heartland’s “inaugural” UK-EU event, despite the branch having been launched in December. She said that the institute was “delighted” that the event was “stimulating discussion”.
The event will be hosted at 55 Tufton Street, a building in Westminster that is owned by one of Reform’s top donors and which has served as a gathering place for the UK’s anti-climate, libertarian lobbying groups.
55 Tufton Street is currently home to the GWPF, the UK’s leading climate science denial group, whose advisor Gwythian Prins will be speaking at the event.
In a report published last March, the GWPF – which is now led by Conservative peer Craig Mackinlay – claimed it was “naive and entirely unrealistic” to believe that CO2 is causing climate change, that record global temperatures are “normal”, and that “there is no observational evidence for any global climate crisis”.
The group has previously expressed the view that carbon dioxide has been “mercilessly demonised”, when in fact it is a “benefit to the planet” and should be “two or three times” higher than its current level.
“Brexit is Farage’s gift that keeps on taking,” said Good Law Project executive director Jolyon Maugham. “Great for hedge funds who shorted the pound; terrible for everyone else. And today, as the Met Office issues a stark warning about what the climate crisis will mean for the very old and the very young, Farage is embarking on another project to enrich the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us.”
Perry told DeSmog: “The fact that Professor Prins is associated with the GWPF, and that our event is held at 55 Tufton Street, should be seen as a badge of honour – it signifies a hub of independent thought brave enough to challenge a catastrophic group think.”
Reform – which is actively raising money from oil executives – campaigns to expand fossil fuel production and impose a “windfall” tax on clean energy companies.
Farage has himself denied basic climate facts. Speaking at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in February, while admitting that he knew little about climate science, Farage claimed it was “absolutely nuts” that CO2 is considered to be a pollutant.
In reality, authors working for the world’s foremost climate science body, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have said that “it is a statement of fact, we cannot be any more certain; it is unequivocal and indisputable that humans are warming the planet”.
The IPCC has also stated that carbon dioxide pollution “is responsible for most of global warming” since the late 19th century, which has increased the “severity and frequency of weather and climate extremes, like heat waves, heavy rains, and drought” – all of which “will put a disproportionate burden on low-income households and thus increase poverty levels.”
The event will also feature Sarah Elliott, a director at the Prosperity Institute (formerly the Legatum Institute), the think tank belonging to the Legatum Group, one of the co-owners of GB News, which employs Farage as a presenter and is a leading promoter of anti-climate views.
Sarah is the partner of Matthew Elliott, a Conservative peer who led the pro-Brexit Vote Leave campaign and was a co-founder of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which is also based in 55 Tufton Street.
The Heartland Institute launched its new UK-EU arm late last year, pledging to “establish a satellite office to provide resources to conservative policymakers throughout Europe”.
The launch featured a speech from Farage, who also made a keynote address to the group’s 40th anniversary fundraiser in Chicago, Illinois, in September. Heartland’s UK-EU chief Lois Perry is a PR executive who founded the CAR26 anti-climate lobby group. She has said it’s her “personal belief” that climate change “is happening” but “is not man made”. Farage and Perry, both former UKIP leaders, are close allies.
As revealed by DeSmog, Heartland has been working closely with far-right politicians in Europe to undermine the bloc’s green reforms. Over the past year, the Heartland Institute’s campaigns in Europe have “quickly grown to a torrent”, according to the group.
However, since the launch of the UK-EU branch, the group hasn’t registered a single meeting with a Member of European Parliament.
Perry said: “Heartland is proud to be supported by private citizens who believe in intellectual freedom.”
She added that net zero “is proving economically ruinous for ordinary British families, damaging to our industrial base, and a direct threat to our national energy security.”
In reality, while the UK’s oil and gas reserves are dwindling, the country’s green economy grew by 10 percent in 2024.
Reform, the GWPF, Prins, and Elliott were approached for comment.
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