21 May 2021 — DeSmogUK

Honestly, we’d really rather not be writing about the UK’s most prominent climate science denial group on a windswept Friday afternoon (or, indeed, any afternoon, tbh).

But in what feels like an alarming pattern of recent weeks, yet another high profile figure has joined the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a thinktank infamous for spreading misinformation on climate change.

Just a few days ago we reported how two Oxford University professors had coolly joined its ranks, one claiming the organisation offered “open debate” and that members were not climate deniers “for the most part”. How reassuring.

We’d just about stopped rolling our eyes when Conservative MP Steve Baker – that’s right, a public servant representing tens of thousands constituents – revealed he too would be joining the GWPF’s ranks as a trustee.

Baker has never been exactly an environmentalist, but it seems he’s not much of an economist either. Announcing his appointment today on Twitter, he said he was “increasingly concerned” about the “astronomical costs” of the government’s current climate plans.

It appears the MP for Wycombe doesn’t know (or care) that climate-related disasters cost the world $650 billion from 2016-2018, or that dealing with the impacts of climate change will likely be the most expensive bill the world has ever footed.

Baker says he predicts a “terrible revolt”, yet this is somewhat undermined by polling showing that five in six U.K. adults think that addressing climate change is very or fairly important, and that three in four wanted politicians to prioritise the issue.

It’s not the first time Baker has surrounded himself with those sceptical about climate action. Let’s not forget he’s the former chair of the pro-hard Brexit MPs pressure group, the European Research Group (ERG) of MPs, members of which included Jacob Rees-Mogg and John Redwood, who have both dismissed mainstream scientific predictions about climate change.

The former “Brexit hardman” is concerned that all this spending will spell an end to the “comfortable lifestyles we have enjoyed for generations”. No thought for the future. No thought for the billions less fortunate than himself. An impeccable example of an altruistic public servant, hell bent on saving his own metaphorical bacon.

Steve, we salute you.

As always, we love feedback on the newsletter. If you have anything to say, please email editor@desmog.uk. Image credit: Chris McAndrew [CC BY 3.0].

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