Has Nigel Farage quietly forced Reform UK to U-turn on climate change denial?
There are signs that Reform UK, formerly the Brexit Party, has discarded, or at least is hiding during the General Election campaign, its denial of human-caused climate change. Bob Ward and Pallavi Sethi chart the apparent change.
When Rishi Sunak announced on 22 May that the election would take place on 4 July, Reform UK’s official policy was to “Scrap Net Zero and Related Subsidies”, claiming this would “save the public sector some £20 billion per year for the next 25 years, possibly more”.
The party attempted to justify this proposed measure through denial of the scientific evidence for human-caused climate change, as posted on its website. In a rambling and wildly inaccurate statement, it declared:
“Net zero means reducing man-made CO2 emissions to stop climate change. It can’t. Climate change has happened for millions of years, before man-made CO2 emissions, and will always change. We are better to adapt to warming, rather than pretend we can stop it. Up to 10 times more people die of cold than warmth. In Roman Britain some 2,000 years ago, it was two degrees warmer than now. Grapes for wine were grown in Yorkshire.
“CO2 is essential for photosynthesis to enable plant growth. CO2 only represents 0.04% of the atmosphere; the average garden greenhouse has three times more! The UK produces only 1% of global CO2 emissions, yet China produces 27%. China and India are building hundreds of coal-fired power stations. Even the IPCC admits Net Zero would make no difference to sea level rise for 200–1,000 years; in other words they do not have a clue.”
The website links to a policy document, ‘Our contract with You: Working Draft’, in which these false statements also appear.
Early in the campaign, Richard Tice, the then leader of Reform UK, also promoted climate change denial. In an interview on BBC Breakfast on 24 May, he wrongly claimed:
“Net zero will make zero difference to climate change, as confirmed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that says if you get to net zero, it’ll make no difference to sea level rise for between 200 and 1,000 years. Actually, what we need to do with climate change – of course, we all care about the environment of the planet – we need to adapt to it. The idea that you can stop the power of the sun or volcanoes is simply ludicrous. Anyone who thinks you can, frankly, you’re misinformed.”
However, since Nigel Farage, formerly the party’s honorary president, replaced Tice as leader on 3 June, Reform UK appears to have dropped climate change denial from its campaign.
The party published an updated version of its ‘Our Contract with You’ on 17 June. It still contains a pledge to “Scrap Net Zero and Related Subsidies”, but the unscientific statements denying human-caused climate change have been removed.
Similarly, when Farage was interviewed on BBC Panorama on 11 June, he declined an opportunity to dispute the science. In an exchange with presenter Nick Robinson, he rejected a claim that he did not accept that there was a crisis, although he said, “I do think that ever since the late 1980s that perhaps there has been a bit of hype around this, and that perhaps is wrong.” However, when pressed, Farage said, “I’m not arguing the science”.
Farage and Tice, the party’s chair, have not officially announced a U-turn on the party’s climate change denial, though, and there are signs that they are perhaps trying to hide it. When Farage appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live on 14 June, presenter Nicky Campbell said that people would laugh at the climate change denial promoted by Reform UK. Farage responded by stating: “I’m not going to have any debate on the science”. But he then added: “All I do know is that man produces about 3 per cent of the CO2 produced in the world every year, and that it is nuts to call CO2 a poison”.
The Reform UK leadership might be recognising that the vast majority of the public do not share their unscientific views. There is a clear history of right-wing parties, including the British National Party and UK Independence Party, embracing climate change denial and failing at the polls.
In their other careers as TV chat show hosts, Tice has consistently promoted climate change denial even if Farage has been more circumspect. It may be that the denial is mainly a weird obsession of Richard Tice, now the party’s chair, although it is also shared by some of its Parliamentary candidates.
In any case, climate change denial does not appear to be a key part of Reform UK’s appeal, with most of its supporters indicating that they are attracted by its opposition to immigration.
If Reform UK has reversed its stance on climate change denial, it will have performed a service to British voters, who need credible politicians that are willing to accept reality.