George Christensen says he is closely associated with conservative thinktank The Heartland Institute

Conservative climate-sceptic thinktank The Heartland Institute is footing the bill for Queensland backbencher George Christensen to travel to Las Vegas to take part in its “international conference on climate change”.



Christensen told Guardian Australia he was “closely associated with the institute” through his relationship with Australian climate-sceptic academic Bob Carter, who is also a constituent in Christensen’s electorate of Dawson.



The institute, which proudly displays the assessment by The Economist that it is “the world’s most prominent think tank promoting scepticism about man-made climate change”, says its July 7-9 conference offers attendees the chance to “learn from top economists and policy experts about the real costs and futility of trying to stop global warming” and to “meet the leaders of think tanks and grassroots organisations who are speaking out against global warming alarmism”.



Christensen will appear beside Carter – science policy adviser to the Institute Public Affairs – and two other Australian climate sceptic academics, Dr Jennifer Marohasy and Dr William Kininmonth, in a session entitled “The global warming debate in Australia”.



“Australia offers a window into what the global warming debate in the US might look like in a few years. The country adopted a carbon tax and other policies at the peak of public and political interest and is now repealing those policies,” the program says, by way of introduction to the session.

The conference will hear from a who’s who of international climate sceptics, including Britain’s Lord Christopher Monckton.



Christensen quoted a Heartland Institute-sponsored document, “Climate Change Reconsidered”, as a source during the parliamentary debate on the repeal of the carbon tax bills.



“The greatest crime in this debate has been the demonisation of anyone who has the temerity to question any aspect of the theory of man-made climate change,” he said.



“Just as those who subscribe to the anthropogenic climate change theories cannot be 100 per cent sure of their belief, I also cannot state categorically that I know there is no link between emissions and the climate. I do have doubts, and those doubts stem from the well-publicised antics of some of the climate scientists out there that were exposed in 'climategate', where they expressed private concerns over the negligible increase in global temperatures – in fact, there has been no increase statistically in global temperatures over the last 15 or 16 years – but then set about altering their statistics to try and prove the opposite.



“The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, which is not influenced by the need to secure government funds, has published a report called Climate Change Reconsidered. That report showed that the science is nowhere near to being settled. They were reputable scientists,” he said.



He told Guardian Australia he would “of course” declare the gift of sponsored travel from the Heartland Institute.



Christensen chairs the Coalition’s backbench committee on industry policy. His travel plans were discussed in Graham Readfearn’s Desmogblog.com.

