Revealed:
US climate denial group working with European far-right parties
Representatives
of Heartland Institute linking up with MEPs to campaign against environmental
policies
Helena
Horton, Sam Bright and Clare Carlile
Wed 22 Jan
2025 12.01 GMT
Climate
science deniers from a US-based thinktank have been working with rightwing
politicians in Europe to campaign against environmental policies, the Guardian
can reveal.
MEPs have
been accused of “rolling out the red carpet for climate deniers” to give them a
platform in the European parliament, amid warnings of a “revival of grotesque
climate denialism”.
The
Heartland Institute, which has links to the Trump administration and has drawn
on funding from companies including ExxonMobil and wealthy US Republican
donors, has seized on a time when rightwing anti-climate action sentiment has
been surging, and has set up a new European base in London.
For the past
two years, representatives of the thinktank have been working with MEPs and
have spoken in the European parliament to campaign against bills, including the
nature restoration law. They have sought to cast doubt on established climate
science, and connected climate-sceptic MEPs from Poland, Hungary and Austria to
help coordinate campaigns against proposed environmental laws.
Heartland
has made some extreme and incorrect comments on climate. In the past, it has
compared people who believe in global heating to the Unabomber, the US
terrorist jailed for killing three people and injuring many others, as well as
branding the concept of human-caused climate change “fake news”.
The Guardian
and DeSmog understand that the organisation first established a foothold among
rightwing MEPs in February 2023, when the far-right Austrian MEPs Harald
Vilimsky and Roman Haider from the anti-migration Freedom party (FPÖ) attended
Heartland’s International Conference on Climate Change in Orlando, Florida.
A few months
later, the pair visited the thinktank’s offices to request help “to counter
climate alarmism”. James Taylor, the president of Heartland, was welcomed to
speak in the European parliament the following March, at the invitation of the
two MEPs, where he forged links with Hungarian politicians to discuss climate
policy and the nature restoration law. Later that month, a vote on the law was
delayed when Hungary withdrew its support, but the bill eventually passed in
June.
In September
2024, Vilimsky was a guest of honour at Heartland’s 40th anniversary gala in
the Hilton Chicago, where the guest list included the rightwing UK politician
Nigel Farage – who later helped launch Heartland’s branch in London. Vilimsky
spoke at the Chicago event, urging closer ties between the Hungarian prime
minister, Viktor Orbán, and Donald Trump.
In October,
Taylor visited Poland at the invitation of its Solidarity union, which has been
campaigning against the closure of the country’s coalmines. There, he met the
former prime minister Beata Szydło, leaders of heavy industry and agriculture,
as well as scientists at one of the country’s top universities, delivering a
presentation that sowed doubt on climate science. Heartland and Solidarity then
signed a joint declaration claiming that actions to address the climate crisis
“aim solely to provoke widespread fear and a sense of threat, especially among
young people, without finding – so far – confirmation in scientific research”.
After
setting up its base in London this December, the institute boasted in a
newsletter to its members about its unprecedented footprint in Europe. It
wrote: “In our role as gadfly, we have helped foment dissent and encouraged and
publicised protests against higher energy taxes, climate restrictions, and wind
and solar subsidies.
“Based on
the fact that a number of energy taxes in different EU countries have been
delayed, reduced, or scuttled altogether and climate policies have been
modified to reduce their economic impact, there is at least some evidence our
efforts have borne positive policy fruit.”
Green MEPs
have warned about the rise of the Institute in Europe. The Austrian MEP Lena
Schilling said: “The FPÖ is rolling out the red carpet for climate change
deniers who try to undermine EU legislation and accelerate the destruction of
our planet. It’s a disgrace and a betrayal of citizens who expect their
political representatives to protect them from disasters and security threats.”
The German
MEP Daniel Freund added: “Recently, Alice Weidel advocated for tearing down all
wind turbines in Germany – even though they produce cheap electricity. The
alliance between climate deniers and the far right is taking on cult-like
characteristics.” Weidel is the co-leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative
für Deutschland party.
Kenneth Haar
from the Corporate Europe Observatory added: “It is really bad news to see the
Heartland Institute moving to Europe. At this point in time we should be scared
that we will see a revival of grotesque climate denialism.
“Their
presence in Brussels and European politics is bad news. The coming years were
looking difficult enough, with corporate lobby groups pushing successfully to
roll back climate policies. The Heartland Institute is likely to become one of
the helping hands to create a close political alliance between conservatives
and the far right that will be very destructive.”
A
spokesperson for Solidarity said that although the trade union rejected
“climate hysteria”, they did not classify themselves as climate deniers, which
they viewed as a term of “abuse”. They added: “We work foremost by ourselves to
defend the workers and their families against skyrocketing energy prices and
energy poverty, and yes, this includes defending our national coal mining
sector.”
A European
parliament spokesperson said: “As part of the freedom of mandate MEPs enjoy,
they can organise their own events, and we cannot comment on individual cases
of members.” However, they added: “The nature and purpose of these events shall
not … undermine the dignity of the EP nor pose a risk to its image or
reputation.”
Heartland,
Vilimsky, Haider, Szydło and the FPÖ have been contacted for comment.
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