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A network of foundations, research groups and policy shops, often funded through foreign channels, is behind the push for net zero in the UK.

The Spectator calls this network the “Dark Green lobby.”

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“[The Dark Green lobby] has been astonishingly successful in shaping policy, controlling debate and overruling elected governments in the courts. It has prevented the exploration of oil and gas in the North Sea, kept energy prices high and made us ever more dependent on Chinese technology,” the outlet said.

The Dark Green actor with the most influence is the Netherlands-based European Climate Foundation (“ECF”), which supports “700+ partner organisations” to “broaden political and public support for net zero.”

“The ECF hopes to ‘embed climate action in robust, future-proof frameworks that withstand political change’. In other words, sod the voters,” The Spectator said.

To this end, it spent €171 million (£146 million) last year to support climate action across Europe and beyond and has donated significant amounts of money to various British thinktanks, including:

• £338,000 to the Institute for Public Policy Research (“IPPR”), a left-leaning organisation that funded a programme of work which produced a report arguing for the closure of the North Sea basin.
• £114,000 to the New Economics Foundation (“NEF”), a radical left-wing thinktank which has campaigned for fossil fuel divestment.  It was previously headed by Miatta Fahnbulleh – formerly Miliband’s junior minister – who is rumoured to be leading Andy Burnham’s putative policy unit.

The ECF also funds the Labour Climate and Environment Forum (“LCEF”), which aims to strengthen ties between politicians, trade unions, industry leaders, and policy thinkers to make “tackling the climate emergency” a core Labour value.

In addition to funding left-leaning thinktanks, the ECF has also donated to centre-right thinktanks such as Onward, the Centre for Policy Studies, Policy Exchange, and the Conservative Environment Network, in an effort to influence a broader range of political perspectives.

The Conservative Environment Network “has produced papers suggesting, among other things, that we must have an international ‘fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty’ and that Britain should institute a carbon border tax,” The Spectator said.

Where does ECF get all its money from? The ECF is a key recipient of funds from the California-based Sequoia Climate Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Ballmer Group, which collectively grant about a billion dollars annually to climate-related causes.

The ECF not only uses these funds for campaigns to stop oil and gas production, it also uses them to distort the energy debate by de-legitimising opponents.  To this end, it funds outlets like Carbon Brief, which focuses on attacking “net-zero misinformation,” and has, for example, criticised The Telegraph for questioning Ed Miliband’s desire to block oil and gas exploration.

Another prominent organisation which is part of the Dark Green lobby is DeSmog UK. It receives money from the European Media and Information Fund.

It’s not only net zero propaganda and attacks on those exposing it that Dark Green money funds. The Dark Green lobby also uses litigation against elected governments to frustrate the will of voters.

The Quadrature Climate Foundation (“QCF”) and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (“CIFF”) provide significant funding to groups that engage in judicial reviews and other legal challenges.

QCF, which is funded by the hedge fund Quadrature Capital has donated large sums to Labour, including £4 million in 2024 – the largest single donation the party has ever received – and has appointed its advisory board co-chair, Rachel Kyte, as the UK’s special envoy on climate, while also funding the Energy Climate Intelligence Unit, which also receives money from ECF and has been quoted by Ed Miliband.

CIFF, established by billionaire hedge-fund owner Chris Hohn, is another major player in funding efforts to undermine voters’ wishes through the courts.  CIFF has funded ClientEarth, a legal activist group which uses the courts to frustrate moves to cheaper energy.  It has also donated millions to the Foundation for International Law for the Environment, which funds climate-related litigation and other academic research into climate change.

CIFF has a close relationship with the Chinese Communist party, with its CEO, Kate Hampton, having received a “friendship award” from Beijing and holding a position on the board of the green committee of the Belt and Road Initiative, and has given $15 million to Energy Foundation China, which has been alleged to be part of a network funding activist lawyers and climate advocacy groups seeking to undermine American energy independence.

The Dark Green money network is distinctive and powerful due to its interlocking nature.  The ECF has received funding from both the QCF and from CIFF.   And some institutions, such as the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, receive funding from all three.

“The British left has spent years warning about malign billionaires, ‘industrial complexes’ and dodgy lobbying networks. Yet on net zero it has built such a machine itself: an internationally funded ecosystem that bankrolls thinktanks, campaign groups, media organisations and litigation in pursuit of a single political objective, The Spectator said.

“Net zero has given the left a new means of controlling and constraining capitalism and growth. It has given international billionaires a cause to signal their virtue while they asset-strip and price-gouge elsewhere.”

You can read the full article on The Spectator HERE.

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• Report Reveals the Climate Alarmists’ Propaganda Machine Is No Match for A Small Group of Honest Scientists and Academics