The DUP’s Sammy Wilson has been named as one of a small group of MPs said to be part of the climate-sceptic ‘Net Zero Scrutiny Group’.
He was the only NI politician listed alongside the Tory-heavy mob, which includes Jacob Rees-Mogg and Iain Duncan-Smith, in a letter to the Telegraph newspaper.
NZSG is understood to have formed in 2021 ahead of the United Nations COP26 summit in Glasgow and launched early 2022.
Read more: DUP MP urged to 'look at the world around him' after heatwave hysteria comments
The group claims to accept climate science but was formed by Conservative MP, Steve Baker, who was on the Board of Trustees of climate denial group the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which opposes UK net-zero plans and takes donations from an oil-rich foundation according to Open Democracy.
They are also said to have close ties with Brexit-supporters the European Research group (ERG) and right-wing pressure group The Institute of Economic Affairs.
NZSG called on former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and then Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to remove VAT and environmental levies on household energy in a letter published in the Telegraph last January - citing cost of living.
The group’s leader and some members are understood to have written directly to the PM in February, 2022 calling on him to end the ban on fracking. Sammy Wilson then voiced his support for fracking in Parliament in September.
That was despite his own party’s then Economy Minister, Gordon Lyons, telling the Northern Ireland Assembly in February 2022 the DUP support a moratorium on fracking as well as oil and gas exploration in Northern Ireland.
Wilson told the PM it was “absolute madness to turn our back” on underground gas during the September debate on energy costs.
Truss later lifted the ban on fracking. Then Labour tried to overturn her decision with another proposed fracking ban, which Sammy’s DUP colleagues, Jim Shannon and Paul Girvan, voted against.
In November 2021 Mr Wilson denied a claim by Boris Johnson that he was a climate sceptic during a House of Commons debate.
We asked the DUP if Sammy Wilson believes climate change is real, or not, after news of his involvement in the climate-sceptic group. We also asked Mr Wilson if he is a climate sceptic.
Neither responded before publication.
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