The new chairman of the UK’s principal climate science denier campaign group holds investments in a number of fossil fuel companies, including those building controversial oil and gas pipelines in Canada.
Labour peer Lord Bernard Donoughue, now 84, was handed the reins of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) after former Chancellor Lord Nigel Lawson (87) stepped down last month.
The GWPF has provided a platform to opponents of action on climate change for almost 10 years. It consistently refuses to provide any details regarding who funds its work.
Donoughue was the senior policy advisor to Harold Wilson’s government during the 1970s. In common with his predecessor, he has no scientific qualifications whatsoever. Donoughue’s 30 shareholdings include four investment funds that list BP and Shell in their top five holdings, while another fund has shares in ExxonMobil.
The House of Lords’ latest Register of Interests also shows another of his fund holdings invests heavily in oil and gas infrastructure in the US and Canada, including the controversial Kinder Morgan and Keystone XL pipelines.
All of which fossil fuel commercial interests will surely never cloud his judgement on the scientific veracity of global warming.
