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A senior councillor from the Reform UK party is facing criticism after asserting that man-made global warming is a “hoax.”
Bert Bingham, who serves as the cabinet member for transport and environment at Nottinghamshire County Council, voiced these opinions during a public meeting held on Thursday.
He alleged that data is being “manipulated” and that the public has been “brainwashed over time through the media.”
Mr. Bingham declined a request from the BBC for an interview on the matter.
Bingham’s remarks were made during a debate on a motion proposed by Labour councillors that urged the Reform-led council to reaffirm its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.
“I’ve been involved in award-winning sustainability projects for 25 years, and I’ve never seen such nonsense as the anthropogenic global warming hoax,” he stated.
“The statistics are manipulated. I’ve followed it over decades, there’s lots of science out there, but at the moment it seems to be as in a lot of matters with Covid, if you follow the money, you find the science or the pseudoscience.”
The global scientific community widely agrees that human activities are driving temperature increases, and 2024 has been recorded as the hottest year on record.
It also marked the first calendar year during which temperatures surpassed 1.5C (34.7F) of warming, according to the Copernicus climate service.
The UN’s climate body, the IPCC, concluded in its 2023 report that “human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming.”
Bingham stated that Reform UK opposes net-zero targets, “but that does not mean we don’t support environmental protection, sustainability, resource efficiency, industrial symbiosis – many areas I’ve worked in.”
He further added that declaring a climate emergency was “absolutely ridiculous and nonsensical.”
“They’ll have us back living in mud huts – if even living at all – by the time they’re done,” he commented.
He expressed his willingness to “debate people at any time on the price of energy and how it’s manipulated.”
He declined an interview with the BBC at the meeting’s conclusion, citing a prior commitment.
Labour county councillor Helen Faccio, who introduced the motion, expressed her “stunned” reaction to the comments.
She added, “I don’t think it’s really appropriate that you think you know better than a whole body of evidence and scientists who present all this information all the time and have told us this is happening – we can see it is happening.”
Other Reform UK councillors applauded at the end of Bingham’s speech.
Council leader Mick Barton told the BBC he does not agree with Bingham that man-made global warming is a hoax, but is “more than happy” for him to continue in his cabinet role.
“I’m the leader but I don’t tell Bert what to say and I don’t tell Bert what not to say, that’s up to councillor Bingham.”
“Bert Bingham is one of the best cabinet members I’ve got and if he’s got his own opinions on climate change, I ain’t got a problem with that.”
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