Conservative MPs are almost five times as likely to vote against climate action as legislators from other parties, a Guardian analysis of 16 indicative parliamentary divisions over the past decade has revealed.

The Tories also registered many more donations, shares, salaries, gifts and tickets to sporting events from fossil fuel companies, petrostates, aviation companies and climate sceptics, according to declarations made in the parliamentary record of MPs’ interests between 2008 and 2019.

The Guardian, in collaboration with the investigative environmental journalism group DeSmog UK, rated MPs from 0% to 100% based on 16 parliamentary votes since 2008. The selection sought to cover a range of measures that would affect the UK’s carbon emissions, with an emphasis on votes where MPs were willing to break ranks and put the climate before their party.

Guardian climate score: how did your MP do? Read more

The analysis shows that although most politicians publicly express support for ambitious long-term climate targets, when it comes to short-term measures to reduce the UK’s carbon footprint, those in power are less likely to make this a priority.

The scores are not intended to be a definitive evaluation of an MP’s green credentials – both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrat parties complained they had been hard done by.

But experts said the scores were an important tool for voters to make a choice through a climate prism with a potential general election looming.

Q&A What is the polluters project? Show Hide The Guardian has collaborated with leading scientists and NGOs to expose, with exclusive data, investigations and analysis, the fossil fuel companies that are perpetuating the climate crisis – some of which have accelerated their extraction of coal, oil and gas even as the devastating impact on the planet and humanity was becoming clear.

The investigation has involved more than 20 Guardian journalists working across the world for the past six months. The project focuses on what the companies have extracted from the ground, and the subsequent emissions they are responsible for, since 1965. The analysis, undertaken by Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute, calculates how much carbon is emitted throughout the supply chain, from extraction to use by consumers. Heede said: "The fact that consumers combust the fuels to carbon dioxide, water, heat and pollutants does not absolve the fossil fuel companies from responsibility for knowingly perpetuating the carbon era and accelerating the climate crisis toward the existential threat it has now become." One aim of the project is to move the focus of debate from individual responsibilities to power structures – so our reporters also examined the financial and lobbying structures that let fossil fuel firms keep growing, and discovered which elected politicians were voting for change. Another aim of the project is to press governments and corporations to close the gap between ambitious long-term promises and lacklustre short-term action. The UN says the coming decade is crucial if the world is to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of global heating. Reining in our dependence on fossil fuels and dramatically accelerating the transition to renewable energy has never been more urgent.

Boris Johnson was among several dozen MPs, mostly Conservatives, who recorded the worst possible score of zero. Although the prime minister has at various times said it was important to cut emissions, records show he voted five times against bills or amendments that could have had a positive climate impact.

He was also among 10 ministers who received donations or gifts from oil companies, airports, petrostates, climate sceptics or thinktanks identified as spreading information against climate action.

The average voting score of Johnson’s cabinet was 17%, compared with the Labour shadow cabinet score of 90%.

The leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, scored 92%.

Labour MPs were far less likely than Conservatives to receive gifts or money related to fossil fuel interests. This is partly because they are in opposition and tend to rely more on donations from trade unions.

One of the MPs most consistently opposed to measures to tackle climate change was Sammy Wilson, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) politician who notoriously organised a “Climate Fools’ Day” parliamentary event in 2010 that gathered sceptic MPs.

Revealed: the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions Read more

The MP who received legitimate donations from the widest range of denialist and fossil fuel sources was the former international trade secretary Liam Fox.

For the emissions-related votes, Conservative MPs averaged 17%, while non-Conservatives scored 80% on average. This breaks down as Labour 86%, Liberal Democrats 51%, Scottish National party and Plaid Cymru 100%, Change UK 59% and the DUP 62%. Sinn Féin had no score because its MPs boycott parliament. The average MP’s score was 50%.

Jo Swinson, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, scored 50%, largely because Lib Dem MPs were often whipped to vote alongside the Conservatives during the 2010-15 coalition government. Her party’s overall voting average fell from 59% to 51% after the recent admission of former Tory Brexit rebels – inclusions the party said were unfair.

A Lib Dem spokeswoman said a different selection of votes would have resulted in a higher scores for their MPs.

The Guardian approached all the main political parties about the scores, explaining the methodology and how they were intended as a tool for the electorate. Their initial response was sharply divided.

While Labour broadly welcomed the study, the Lib Dems questioned the methodology. A Conservative spokesperson said the findings were “complete nonsense”.

“Addressing climate change is a top priority for the Conservative party, which is why in June we became the first major economy to legislate to end our contribution to global warming by 2050. Boris Johnson and the Conservatives are taking world-leading action on climate change. We have reduced emissions by a quarter since coming to office in 2010, the fastest reduction by any G20 nation, and boosted renewables to record levels.”

A press officer for Corbyn said it was a “very valuable project for voters”. A Labour spokesperson added: “We’re proud that Labour has a long history of leading the way on the environment, as this analysis clearly shows. I would hope that no concerned MP feels compelled to ever again vote against legislation that will tackle climate change.”

The Lib Dems said the party was proud of its record. “In government we presided over the largest increase in renewable generation ever seen in the UK’s history,” a party spokesperson said. “Since 2015 the Tories have consistently undermined the UK’s progress on tackling the climate emergency, as have Labour through their tacit support of Brexit. Liberal Democrats demand better. We are the only national party serious about tackling the climate emergency and we have radical plan to cut emissions to net zero by 2045 at the very latest.”

Before seeing the results, Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem head of the Commons science and technology committee – who scored 62% – said: “It’s a good thing this is being done by the Guardian. MPs are leaders and we need to be held to account.”

The Green party’s only MP, Caroline Lucas – who has consistently been a leader on environment issues – registered 92%. It was not 100% because she voted to keep nuclear power subsidies relatively low. Lucas and many environmentalists argued the subsidies would be better spent on cheaper, safer forms of renewable energy.

The analysis, which covers 16 votes since the 2008 Climate Change Act, shows politicians of all stripes are less likely to vote for climate action when their party is in government and, with notable exceptions, follow the party whip.

The top-scoring Conservative MP, Zac Goldsmith (67%), often voted against his own party in favour of measures that would help to stabilise the climate.

The second-lowest-scoring Labour MP, Graham Stringer (57%), is a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a UK-based organisation that denies the urgency of the climate crisis, and was one of only two MPs who voted against the 2014 conclusion of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that humans bore most responsibility for climate change.

Lucas said MPs should rethink their priorities. “The climate emergency is a global crisis, more important in the long term than Brexit, but it doesn’t attract the same commitment and that’s simply not good enough,” she said.

“MPs need to wake up to what people want: tougher action, more ambitious targets and a real sense of urgency.”

The former Labour leader Ed Miliband said parties should maintain a consensus about the scale of the challenge but should battle over the measures needed to achieve the UK’s goals.

“The climate emergency will be on the ballot paper at the next general election,” he said. “Parties need to fight it out on who really gets it, is willing to match rhetoric with action and grasps the overwhelming need to act now rather than later.”

Analysts said that in the past, voter apathy had persuaded MPs they would not be judged on this issue.

“The problem is with the silent majority of MPs,” said Rebecca Willis, a research associate at Lancaster University, who has studied parliamentary attitudes on global heating. “Very few politicians in the UK deny the science of climate – but there are not many that are very active on climate issues, either. The vast majority sit in between: they say the right things when required, but they don’t champion the issue or spend time on it. They don’t perceive that it’s a priority for voters.”

Dave Timms of Friends of the Earth said: “There is still a broad consensus for the overall target, but when it comes to making the hard choices needed to achieve that target, climate action is at a standstill.”

Additional reporting by Lucy Campbell, Nur Pirbhai, Christine Parry and Hanako Lowry