The new environment secretary, Steve Barclay, received a donation from a major funder of a climate sceptic thinktank just weeks before taking up his role, the Guardian can reveal. Barclay accepted £3,000 from Michael Hintze on 20 October, and is being asked by campaigners to reveal whether he has been lobbied on climate issues by those who seek to deny the extent of climate breakdown. Lord Hintze has been one of the key funders of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a UK-based thinktank that has denied the legitimacy of climate science, and he was one of its earliest backers. The thinktank focuses on questioning policy on the climate crisis, and was set up by the former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson, who has said that climate change is not a threat, but “happening very gently at a fraction of a degree per decade, which is something we can perfectly well live with”. The thinktank has produced reviews – at odds with mainstream science – that claim the climate emergency is not happening, or downplay the extent of it. Tory MPs have at various times been trustees of the thinktank, including until recently the Northern Ireland minister, Steve Baker. He quit his trusteeship when he took up the ministerial post.
It has recently led the backlash against government net zero policies, and celebrated when Rishi Sunak recently announced his intention to roll back on climate measures. The Guardian revealed last year that the thinktank had received funding from groups with oil and gas interests. The environment secretary already faces conflict of interest concerns over his wife’s job at a water company. Karen Barclay holds a senior position at Anglian Water as head of major infrastructure, planning and stakeholder engagement. As secretary of state, Barclay is responsible for overseeing the regulation of water companies. He is responsible for ensuring water firms make improvements regarding sewage pollution via the government’s storm overflow reduction plan. Regarding the donation, campaigners have said it is inappropriate for someone charged with protecting the natural world to take funds from someone who is such a major backer of a climate sceptic group. Jolyon Maugham, the director of the Good Law Project, said: “Steve Barclay is taking money from a man who has been a key funder of a climate change denial group and who has ties to Tufton Street. And he’s the environment secretary? Is this some kind of hilarious Conservative party in-joke? Because the younger generation aren’t laughing – and neither is the global south.” MPs are expected to ask if Barclay agrees with or endorses the views of the GWPF. Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: “Steve Barclay has some serious questions to answer. When our natural world faces ever-increasing threats as a result of the climate emergency, we can’t have an environment secretary taking donations from a major backer of the climate-denying GWPF. I’d like to know why Barclay accepted this donation; what conversations with Lord Hintze he had before and since receiving it; and whether he agrees with GWPF’s climate-denying views.” Hintze has been contacted for comment. A source close to Steve Barclay said: “All donations to Steve’s office are declared in line with the MPs’ code of conduct. “Lord Hintze is a Conservative peer and regular party donor who supports a number of Conservative MPs. Steve has never discussed environmental policy with him. “Steve is fully committed to the government’s net zero aims. Protecting our environment for future generations is one of his key priorities and that includes urgently tackling climate change.” A spokesperson for Hintze directed the Guardian to his maiden speech in the House of Lords, where he said he believed climate change was real.