The free-market think tank has taken money from oil companies and Rupert Murdoch’s outlets while campaigning against climate action
Fossil fuel firms and Rupert Murdoch’s media companies paid anti-climate science think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) over £640,000 between 1957 and 2005.
A new investigation by DeSmog has found that the IEA, which has campaigned for more fossil fuel extraction and against government climate action, received more than £150,000 from BP, £124,000 from Esso (owned by ExxonMobil), and £106,000 from Shell.
DeSmog has also revealed that the right-wing think tank received £164,667 in donations from News International – which Murdoch used to own – between 1991 and 2000.
Murdoch has described himself as a climate sceptic, and used his outlets to peddle climate denial.
In 2020, Murdoch’s son James criticised his outlets News Corp and Fox for describing coverage linking the Australian wildfires to climate change as “hysterical” and “silly”.
The IEA does not publicly disclose its donors, on the grounds that it respects “the privacy rights of donors”. UK think tanks are not legally obligated to declare their funding sources.
The IEA has called for increased fossil fuel extraction. It has said the ban on fracking for shale gas should be lifted, lambasted the government for banning new North Sea oil and gas licences.
It also celebrated the Conservative Party’s pledge to scrap the 2008 Climate Change Act in October, calling it “the first step back to sanity”.
“This investigation confirms one of the worst-kept secrets in Westminster,” said Ami McCarthy, Greenpeace UK’s head of politics. “This self-styled economic think tank is really a lobbying shop for the harmful and polluting industries that fund it, with fossil fuel giants chief among them.”
McCarthy added that the IEA “spent years downplaying the climate crisis while taking loads of cash from some of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies and one of its most influential climate sceptics, Rupert Murdoch.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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