What is the Heartland Institute? Inside the climate change denying think tank supported by Nigel Farage
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The US-based lobby group has made extreme statements sceptical of climate change - and illustrated their point with pictures of the Unabomber. Nigel Farage and Liz Truss were spotted attending the launch of the UK branch of a Donald Trump-backed think tank that has been leading the charge in denying climate change.
![[Lois Perry, Executive Director of Heartland UK/Europe, addresses those gathered in London for the launch party.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/15/08/20241217_195534-768x576.jpg)
James Taylor, president of The Hartland Institute, describes the organisation as a “free-market think tank known globally as the world’s most prominent think tank supporting scepticism about man-made climate change”. The US-based lobby group – which is one of the organisations involved in the Project 2025 agenda for a second Donald Trump term – has made extreme statements sceptical of climate change. The think tank launched its UK-EU branch in December, aiming to leverage “science-based work pushing back at climate alarmism and schemes such as Net Zero from London”.
Mr Farage, who was the guest of honour at the launch, was joined by former prime minister Ms Truss and Tory shadow trade minister Andrew Griffith. Here, The Independent takes a look at the controversial group. The institute was founded in 1984 by Chicago investor David H. Padden.
In the 1990s, the Heartland Institute worked with the tobacco company Philip Morris to question the science linking second-hand smoke to health risks, and lobbied against government public health reforms. Philip Morris commissioned Heartland to write and distribute reports.
