Money from foreign shadow organisations is pouring into the British climate system and undermining British workers. The money often comes from nations that must be regarded as enemies.
This is the claim made by John Power and William Atkinson in The Spectator, where they are both assistant content editors. In their July article, they point out that the left regards Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage as puppets of shady interests, such as think tanks funded by oil companies, Christian fundamentalists and perhaps even Russian money.
However, these allegations have been thoroughly investigated and generally lead nowhere. At the same time, there is no willingness to scrutinise Labour’s Net Zero agenda, spearheaded by former Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. Although his policies have been criticised, the network behind him has remained in the shadows.
The story of the ‘dark green’ lobby is being ignored. This lobby consists of a network of foundations, research groups and political think tanks, often funded through foreign channels.
Their agenda shapes policy, dictates the debate and prevents oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. The result for British households and businesses is sky-high energy prices, an economy in freefall and an ever-increasing dependence on Chinese technology.
Among the most influential players in the dark green lobby is the European Climate Foundation (ECF). The ECF describes itself as ‘a foundation that awards grants for climate action across Europe and beyond’. Hundreds of different organisations receive funding from the ECF.
The ECF itself claims to be funded by various private philanthropic sources, citing, amongst others, the ClimateWorks Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF).
On closer inspection, there are signs that these groups actually fund one another, at least in part. But the money has to come from somewhere, after all.
Democratic rules of the game do not seem to mean much to the Net Zero activists, which is hardly surprising to most of Document’s readers.
The ECF hopes to ‘anchor climate action in robust, future-proof frameworks that can withstand political changes’. In other words: to hell with the voters.
To this end, the ECF, from its headquarters in the Netherlands, spent a total of 171 million euros last year, channelling funds through a wide range of organisations across Europe, several of which are based in the UK.
Most of the funding goes to left-wing groups focusing on the ‘climate crisis’. The ECF donated 114,000 pounds to the New Economics Foundation (NEF), the radical left-wing think tank where Green Party leader Zack Polanski presented his economic vision earlier this year.
The left wing of Labour is also active in this area.
The NEF was previously led by Miatta Fahnbulleh – Miliband’s former parliamentary private secretary – who, according to rumours, is set to head Andy Burnham’s prospective policy department.
The NEF has campaigned for a complete halt to investment in oil and gas, which it claims will become an ‘economic burden’. Instead, they want a full-scale push for ‘renewable energy’, such as offshore wind. Like all offshore wind enthusiasts, they completely overlook the fact that offshore wind is extremely costly, both for investors and electricity customers, and entirely incapable of delivering stable energy.
In true socialist spirit, NEF wants an end to private investment and calls for the renewable energy sector to be fully nationalised. They ignore the fact that for decades the sector has shown a complete inability to turn a profit without massive subsidies.
In other words: all these sky-high costs are to be funded directly by British taxpayers, who are already struggling. This is despite the fact that all the evidence suggests that the pipe dream of a functioning zero-emissions society can never be achieved.
The ECF also funds the Labour Climate and Environment Forum (LCEF), which hosted Miliband at the Labour Party Conference in 2025. The LCEF focuses on familiar concepts such as equity and social justice – that is, equality of outcome and social justice for different groups, regardless of the individual’s abilities, willingness or effort. Classic DEI, in other words: diversity, equality of outcomes and inclusion.
The LCEF is shrewd enough not to limit itself to attempting to influence the political left. They have also made contributions to centre-right think tanks such as Onward, the Centre for Policy Studies, Policy Exchange and the Conservative Environment Network.
Just how conservative is the Conservative Environment Network, which has proposed introducing an international ‘fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty’ and is campaigning for the UK to introduce a CO₂ tax at the border?
Attacks on freedom of expression
‘Dark Green Money’ has a readily recognisable objective. They are not out to win, but to halt the climate debate by undermining the legitimacy of their opponents. The ECF therefore funds the fight against ‘climate disinformation’ – which others would describe as well-informed freedom of expression.
That is why they fund Carbon Brief, which focuses on combating ‘misinformation about climate neutrality’. In other words, they aim to combat science.
The most prominent of the various ‘Net Zero’ organisations fighting against the ‘misinformation’ surrounding wind turbines is DeSmog UK. They accuse all opponents of a complete halt to oil and gas extraction in the North Sea of being funded by interests linked to fossil fuels.
DeSmog receives funding from the European Media and Information Fund, which has condemned both Badenoch and Farage for the ‘crime’ of wanting the UK to use its own oil and gas rather than that of Norway or Russia.
DeSmog has also attacked Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union and associate editor of *The Spectator*, for opposing Covid lockdowns.
The tyranny of the pandemic did, after all, lead to a reduction in carbon emissions, as many people largely stayed at home. Does DeSmog want to make the lockdown permanent, for the sake of the climate?
DeSmog also condemns anti-abortion campaigners and the ‘pro-Brexit network that denies climate science’.
In doing so, they ingeniously link the belief in British independence with – in the eyes of their supporters – anti-scientific, nature-destroying superstition.
Everyone must go
Even children are used in the propaganda. The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) was founded in 2002 by Chris Hohn, a billionaire and hedge fund owner. Among other things, CIFF has provided support to radical climate activists such as Extinction Rebellion.
Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion block gas terminal in Rogaland
The CIFF has a suspiciously close relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. CIFF Director Kate Hampton has received a ‘Friendship Award’ from Beijing and sits on the board of the environmental committee of the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’. In 2021, Miliband took part alongside Hampton in a panel discussion at the COP26 summit, together with Tessa Khan, the founder of Uplift. It seems as though everything gets mixed up with everything else in this milieu.
CIFF is registered as a foreign NGO in China and has shown its gratitude to Beijing by donating $15 million to the Energy Foundation China, which employs former Chinese government officials.
The blurring of lines between the various organisations raises questions.
ECF has received funding from both QCF and CIFF. Institutions such as the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment list all three of these organisations as sources of funding.
The Dark Green Money network is so distinctive and so powerful precisely because of the interwoven way in which it operates.
As funds flow from companies and individuals via foundations and charities to campaign groups and activists, the actual source and motivation can be concealed. The use of ‘charities’ for political campaigning can be camouflaged with green foliage.
Using the courts against democracy
Another aim of the ‘Net Zero’ lobby is to use the courts against democratically elected governments to undermine the will of the electorate. Here we find, amongst others, the Quadrature Climate Foundation (QCF), which in turn is funded by Quadrature Capital, a hedge fund with $8.4 billion in assets under management as of May this year, where employees were each paid £3 million in 2022, according to The Times. The hedge fund donated £4 million to Labour in 2024.
QCF’s chief scientist has stated that the foundation’s investments in climate organisations “grease the wheels so that we can accelerate the Net Zero movement”. For this reason, QCF supports Uplift, which is working hard to halt oil and gas extraction from the Rosebank field in the North Sea, with some success.
Whilst the British left has for years warned against malevolent billionaires, ‘industrial complexes’ and dubious lobbyist networks, they have themselves built up an internationally funded ecosystem that supports think tanks, action groups, media organisations and courts in the pursuit of a single political goal: net-zero emissions.
The British left, like socialists everywhere, has always worked to control and restrict capitalism and growth. They have received support from self-righteous billionaires who are oblivious to the bloody costs borne by workers, the middle class and businesses that are not ‘in the loop’ – suffice it to mention the car industry, which is in freefall across the whole of Western Europe.
Climate hysteria and the goal of net-zero emissions have given the left a new weapon with which to target its enemies, the rich and the wealthy – with the obvious exception of the ‘good’ billionaires who submit to the climate cause.
And now the darling of the dark-green lobby, Ed Miliband, is on the verge of becoming the man in charge of the economy. It is hard not to be impressed. And deeply depressed.
Miliband did not become Chancellor of the Exchequer; he was appointed Foreign Secretary as part of the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s cabinet reshuffle at the end of July.
