We're holding the regulator to account on climate denial charity

It’s more than a year since we teamed up with a cross-party group of MPs to submit a complaint about the climate-sceptic charity the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

But the Charity Commission has sat on its hands. MPs argue that the commission’s delay is contributing to an unlawful distortion of the public debate about climate change.

Now we’re taking the first step in the legal process to challenge the regulator over its failure  to act.

Good Law Project supported MPs Layla Moran, Clive Lewis and Caroline Lucas in October 2022 to identify the foundation’s apparent breaches of charity rules. Part of the network of radical rightwing organisations based at Tufton Street who don’t disclose their funding – it has spent several hundred thousand pounds on one-sided research that denies the climate crisis. This flies in the face of the foundation’s own charitable purpose, “to advance the public understanding of global warming”, as well as rules that state the outputs from educational charities must be “neutral and balanced”.

As the months have rolled by, the MPs have repeatedly asked for updates from the commission. But they haven’t received any substantive response. The foundation even reported itself to the commission after accepting it was facing  a “serious incident” in January 2023 – but the commission did little more than confirm receipt of the report. 

This failure goes hand in hand with the regulator’s rush to dismiss a complaint against the Institute of Economic Affairs  – another Tufton Street think-tank which has come under fire for flouting charity rules by pushing biased and selective views. The regulator changed the guidance that the institute was accused of breaking the day after receiving our complaint. 

Charities should be run for the good of us all and abide by charity law. It’s time to hold the Charity Commission to account for failing to do its duties.