Guest essay by Eric Worrall

“He’s making us all look like idiots” – are greens losing their grip in the EU? Greens are in shock that MEP Stuart Agnew of the climate skeptic United Kingdom Independence Party was selected to write a key European Union Parliament climate report.

Ukip MEP sparks outrage with report denying human role in climate change

Report blames climate change on cosmic ray fluctuations and sunspot activity, drawing derision from climate scientists

A European parliament report that blames climate change on cosmic ray fluctuations, sunspots and planetary gravitational pulls, is so hackneyed and ill-informed it would “make the dinosaurs blush,” climate scientists say.

The non-binding opinion written by Ukip MEP, John Stuart Agnew, has shocked EU lawmakers for its dismissal of climate science – and the support he received to write it from mainstream rightwing and liberal political blocs.

Green MEP Molly Scott Cato said their choice of Agnew, a Norfolk farmer, as parliamentary rapporteur by the agriculture committee, was a “truly scandalous” fiasco that illustrated a growing populist threat. A rapporteur is elected to shepherd EU proposals through the European parliament and, after negotiations with the European commission and EU states, into law.

The Agnew report calls for a €5.45bn green fund called Life to be used to prepare “for an impending Maunder Minimum” – or a period of low sunspot activity.

It deletes the European commission’s proposals for funds to be spent on clean energy infrastructure, references to climate mitigation and obligations under the Paris agreement.

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Agnew has long campaigned against what he terms “the global warming scam”. He has also drawn attention for claiming thousands of pounds in CAP payments for his Norfolk farm every month, according to his members’ declaration.

He told the Guardian that “I threw my hat in the ring to do this [report] fully expecting to be thrown out of court,” but that he then received wide support, “to my genuine astonishment”.

A spokesman for the European People’s Party said their backing for Agnew was due to bidding procedures and not an endorsement of his climate politics.

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