Who's funding David Frost's climate-sceptic think thank?

Right wing, climate change-sceptic think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs – now led by David ‘Frosty’ Frost, Boris Johnson’s Brexit bungler – seems perennially awash with cash. But where’s it coming from?

The website DeSmog has published a new investigation showing that the IEA, which continues to enjoy charitable status and the significant tax benefits it brings, received more than £640,000 from fossil fuel companies and Rupert Murdoch combined in the years up to 2005.

DeSmog says that the records show that the group, which has led campaigns for more fossil fuel extraction and against pretty much any government climate action, banked more than £150,000 from BP, £124,000 from Esso (owned by ExxonMobil), and £106,000 from Shell.

In total, the IEA took £479,992 from oil and gas firms, with the majority – £357,063 – coming from 1991 onwards. The fossil fuel giants were among its biggest corporate contributors during the period.

Strict guidelines state charities should “engage equally with all major political parties”, and that their research must avoid presenting “biased and selective information in support of a preconceived point of view”.

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On November 5 this year, the sector’s regulation, the Charities Commission, told complainants that the IEA had turned over a new leaf, claiming it had provided evidence that “demonstrates a significant change in approach… with a push for greater transparency and political neutrality”. It added that the IEA “needs now to deliver on its plans and implement these changes, which would address… potential regulatory concerns”.

A day later, the Institute – widely blamed as the inspiration for Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget – showed its new commitment to political neutrality by appointing as its new director general Frost, architect of Boris Johnson’s abysmal Brexit deal and confirmed climate change denier.

Now DeSmog’s investigation has shown just how committed the IEA has been to avoiding “biased and selective information in support of a preconceived point of view”. It does not publicly disclose its donors and this is the first time that its sources have been revealed in detail.

It has long been a prominent advocate for increased fossil fuel extraction, calling for the ban on fracking to be lifted, labelling it the “moral and economic choice”, attacking the government for banning new North Sea oil and gas licences and – despite rules forcing it to be politically neutral – celebrating the Conservative Party’s pledge to scrap the 2008 Climate Change Act, which forms the legal basis of the UK’s 2050 net zero target.

DeSmog also revealed that the IEA received £164,667 in donations from News International – Rupert Murdoch’s UK media stable – between 1991 and 2000. It is the first time that one of Murdoch’s companies has been found to have donated to a UK pressure group. Murdoch has described himself as a climate change “sceptic”.

All of which should be enough to make the Charities Commission reconsider its verdict on the think tank, delivered just last month. What will it do? From the past record of the utterly toothless body, absolutely nothing.