Revealed: Secretive funding organization 'providing millions to climate change counter-movement on behalf of fossil fuel industry'

Koch family operates fund that gave $4.5m to support climate change denial



Char les Koch ranked as the 45th most powerful person in the world

He runs Koch Industries, an oil, gas and chemical conglomerate

Fund set-up helps backers involved in fossil fuel industry to retain anonymity

American billionaire Charles Koch is involved in a secretive funding organization to undermine the science of global warming, it has been claimed.

The Donors Trust and the Donors Capital Fund, both based in Alexandria, Virginia, have been funding the climate counter-movement which seeks to cast doubt on the climate change while keeping its wealthy backers anonymous, The Independent has said.

Millions of dollars have been funneled into both funds through a third party group called the Knowledge and Progress Fund, operated by the Koch family.

Its directors include Charles Koch and his wife Liz, and it gave $4.5million to the Donors in the last six years, although there is no mention of the fund on the Koch Industries website or the Charles Koch Foundation website.



Millions of dollars have been funnelled into funds that finance the climate counter-movement by a third-party group called the Knowledge and Progress Fund whose directors include Charles Koch and his wife Liz

Ranked fourth on Forbes' list of the richest Americans, Charles, 76, is worth an estimated $31billion and is ranked as the 45th most powerful person in the world.

The Kansas-based company Koch Industries, an oil, gas and chemical conglomerate he runs with his brother David, is the second largest privately held company in the country with 67,000 employees.

The opacity of the funding set up is attractive to wealthy backers, some of whom have interests in the fossil fuel industry, for it allows them to remain anonymous while supporting the climate counter-movement.

Robert Brulle, a sociologist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, believes approximately $500m has been donated to groups dedicated to casting doubt on the science of climate change, with a large proportion of this money arriving via third party organizations.

Dr Brulle said: 'We really have anonymous giving and unaccountable power being exercised here in the creation of the climate counter-movement. There is no attribution, no responsibility for the actions of these foundations to the public.

A privately-funded organization set up by David Koch called Americans for Prosperity famously claimed that the 'Climategate' emails hacked from scientists at the University of East Anglia in 2009 proved not only were they massaging evidence of man-made climate change but that global warming was 'the biggest hoax the world has ever seen'.

Charles, 76, (left) and David, 72, (right) are both worth an estimated $31billion and are jointly ranked as the 45th most powerful people in the world. They run Koch Industries, an oil, gas and chemical conglomerate

The trust has also donated money to the American Enterprise Institute which is being sued for defamation by climatologist Professor Michael Mann of Pennsylvania University.

He claims he was accused of scientific fraud and compared to a convicted child molester by the institute.

The Koch brothers hit the headlines last year during the Presidential campaign when thousands of employees at their companies were emailed a letter telling them to vote for Mitt Romney while warning of the dangers of an Obama re-election

Koch Industries Inc.was unavailable for comment.



The Koch brothers hit the headlines last year during the Presidential campaign when thousands of employees at their companies were emailed a letter telling them to vote for Mitt Romney

WHO ARE THE KOCH BROTHERS? THE MEN BEHIND THE MONEY David Koch (pictured) set up Americans for Prosperity organization which claimed global warming was 'biggest hoax the world has ever seen' Charles, 76, and David, 72, are both worth an estimated $31billion and are jointly ranked as the 45th most powerful people in the world.



Known for their political connections to Republican groups that support lightened regulation and free markets, Charles is thought to donate more than $40million per year to his libertarian foundation.



While many political analysts have understood their power for years, the pair made their biggest foray on the public stage when they helped to found the political advocacy group Americans For Prosperity, which played a significant role in the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 2010 and the surge of the Tea Party movement.



They have focused their attention to specific political campaigns in the past and had successful results. The clearest of those successes was the gubernatorial campaign of union-busting Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin.



Though the pair are famous for the secretive way in which they do business, their name has become something of a stereotype when it comes to labeling the questionable connections between private enterprise and public works.



'The Koch brothers are the poster children of the effort by multinational corporate America to try to redefine the rights and values of American citizens,' Democratic Wisconsin Representative Gwen Moore told The New York Times.



Hollywood took notice of the Koch’s public perception, and a shady pair of billionaire brothers (the ‘Motch brothers’) were made the villains in The Campaign, a comedy starring Zach Galifianakis and Will Ferrell.



