Reform UK mayoral candidate Andrea Jenkyns has been condemned for rejecting climate science and promising Trump-style budget cuts, despite standing in a high climate risk area.
The former Conservative MP, who defected to Nigel Farage’s party in November, is tipped to become Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire in Thursday’s local elections, polling at 40 percent with a 15 point lead on her nearest opponent according to YouGov.
Jenkyns – who sits on the board of Net Zero Watch, an anti-climate campaign group – has claimed that carbon dioxide “is not pollution”, and has dubbed clean energy policies “bureaucratic nonsense” which should be scrapped.
Jenkyns has campaigned heavily on a platform to stop pylons and solar farms from being built in Lincolnshire – both crucial components of the renewable energy transition.
She has also promised to launch a “Lincolnshire DOGE” – a reference to the Department of Government Efficiency created by Donald Trump’s administration and overseen by far-right tech magnate Elon Musk, which has implemented a range of harsh public sector cuts, including to climate agencies.
“Lincolnshire is on the front line of the climate crisis in the UK,” said Carys Boughton, a campaigner with Fossil Free Parliament. “We desperately need more politicians who understand that rising emissions are driving extreme weather in our coastal towns.
“We need politicians to take action to protect our future. Of course, Jenkyns and Reform won’t act in our interests. Their climate denialism and senselessly anti-green policies are fuelled by donations from the fossil fuel industry and will only intensify the harm caused to residents and businesses.”
Reform advocates for clean energy policies to be scrapped, including cancelling the UK’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Its senior figures, including Farage and his deputy Richard Tice, have repeatedly questioned basic climate science.
As DeSmog revealed, 92 percent of the party’s funding (£2.3 million) between the 2019 and 2024 elections came from climate science deniers or donors with polluting interests. Reform treasurer Nick Candy told the Financial Times last week that the party was seeking donations from the oil and gas industry, with £100,000 already pledged and more promised.
Polling by More in Common last year found that 65 percent of the public are worried about climate change, including a majority (61 percent) of Conservative voters, and nearly half (44 percent) of Reform voters.
Polling in the Lincolnshire Combined Authority region also found that 50 to 60 percent of local residents support the UK’s net zero targets, while 88 percent support renewable energy projects in the area.
Lincolnshire’s Climate Risks
According to XDI Systems, which analyses global climate risks, Lincolnshire is the most at risk county in England to built environment damage caused by extreme weather and climate change.
Lincolnshire also came 12th in its ranking of at-risk areas in Europe, and along with Greater London features in the top 10 percent of climate risk areas globally.
As DeSmog has reported, Tice’s constituency of Boston and Skegness in Lincolnshire has the highest risk of flooding in England, according to a Climate Risk Index published by insurance giant AXA.
A Local Climate Impacts Profile produced by Lincoln Council in 2021 found that 16,450 properties in Lincolnshire were at “high, long-term risk of flooding”, and that 16 extreme weather events occurred in the county between 2010 and 2020, including “excessive rainfall, storms, heatwaves, and severe snow and ice”.
As DeSmog reported in June, Nigel Farage’s Clacton constituency in Essex is at serious risk of flooding by 2030 due to climate change, while more than two-thirds (68 percent) of Clacton voters are worried about global warming.
Despite this, Farage has claimed that local councils waste money on climate policies, and has vowed to cut these areas of spending in the style of Musk’s sweeping cuts in the United States.
Between 2010–11 and 2022–23, during the period of austerity implemented by the previous Conservative government, English councils’ overall core funding per person fell by 26 percent in real terms – drastic cuts that have directly led to the crisis in public services experienced today, experts suggest.
Jenkyns and Climate
Andrea Jenkyns has also repeatedly attacked green policies and cast doubt on climate science.
In a 2023 piece for GB News, Jenkyns wrote: “Carbon dioxide is not pollution; it is a naturally occurring trace gas essential to life on Earth. It is only one of many factors that might have an impact on the climate.”
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s top climate science body, has stated that carbon dioxide “is responsible for most of global warming” since the late 19th century, and has increased the “severity and frequency of weather and climate extremes, like heat waves, heavy rains, and drought”.
Climate scientists working for the IPCC have also 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”.
Jenkyns added in her piece that “many leading scientists” have “cast informed doubt on the concept of a ‘climate crisis’.”
In fact, climate consensus studies between 2004 and 2015 found that between 90 and 100 percent of experts agree humans are responsible for climate change. A 2021 study which reviewed over 3,000 scientific papers found that over 99 percent of climate science literature says that global warming is caused by human activity.
In a speech Jenkyns gave at Reform’s East Midlands conference in January, she said: “I say no to [Energy Secretary] Ed Miliband bankrupting Britain with his net zero madness” and “I say no to Lincolnshire being a dumping ground for pylons”.
A month later, at Reform’s annual conference, she asserted that “net zero has become a religion” for Labour and the Conservatives, adding: “I say yes to ditching net zero full stop.”
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This post has been syndicated from DeSmog, where it was published under this address.