Everyone at the Global Warming Policy Foundation is saddened by the news of the passing of Nigel Lawson, the inspiration behind the GWPF, our founding chairman, and latterly our honorary president.
Inspired by his friend and colleague, Professor David Henderson, Lord Lawson led the first House of Lord inquiry into the climate change issues in 2005, and later, in 2008, wrote a book on the subject, entitled An Appeal to Reason: A cool look at Global Warming.
In spite his difficulties in finding a publisher who would take on the project, the book became a bestseller, showing clearly that there was a hunger for serious analysis and for a reasoned challenge to prevailing orthodoxies. The result was the Global Warming Policy Foundation, an educational charity and non-partisan think tank which was launched on the eve of the UN’s Copenhagen Climate Conference in 2009.
The Global Warming Policy Foundation was launched by Lord Lawson and Dr Benny Peiser on 23 November 2009 in the House of Lords – in the run-up to the Copenhagen Climate Summit.
Lawson remained the chairman of the Foundation until 2017, and has since been its Honorary President. He remained active in the Foundation’s affairs and discussions behind the scenes until very recently.
Dr Benny Peiser, the GWPF’s director said:
“Nigel Lawson has been with us from the beginning, as friend, mentor and colleague. His stoic wisdom and his political and economic realism made him one of the greatest politicians of modern Britain. He played a key part in Britain’s economic and cultural rejuvenation. His courage in taking on climate dogmatism was ahead of the times and is only now getting traction as the astronomical costs of Net Zero begin to bite. His wisdom and insights will be missed by us all.”
Neil Record, chairman of Net Zero Watch said:
“Nigel Lawson was a successful politician – a rare accolade – who understood economics as well as politics, and who masterminded the 40% top rate of income tax; a very successful tax policy which lasted for 25 years.
Lord Lawson also exhibited a characteristic very rare in leading politicians; he took a very unpopular and unfashionable view on climate change, not because he had any personal interest, but because he believed that the level of alarmism about climate change was not justified by the evidence. This led him to found the Global Warming Policy Foundation, one of the very few think tanks in this area. Such intellectual honesty and personal courage is very rare.”