Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI)
The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) is an organization established in February 1995, primarily focused on skepticism regarding climate change and its policies. Originally known as the Center for Science and Public Policy for the Frontiers of Freedom, it was founded by former U.S. Senator Malcolm Wallop. The SPPI promotes research and educational initiatives aimed at questioning mainstream climate science and advocating for alternative energy and environmental policies. Christopher Monckton, a notable figure in climate skepticism and former advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, serves as the organization's chief policy advisor, while Robert Ferguson has been noted as the executive director.
The SPPI has gained attention for its projects, including funding a film that counters the arguments presented in Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." It has published works critical of climate models used by the United Nations and is known for its collaboration with other organizations that share similar views on climate change. The institute's activities have been supported by financing from industries such as tobacco and oil, raising discussions about the influence of funding on environmental discourse. Overall, the SPPI plays a significant role in the ongoing debate regarding climate change and environmental policy.
Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI)
- DATE: Established February 1995
Mission
The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) is a global warming skeptic organization that focuses its efforts on research and education surrounding advancement of public policies for energy and the environment. The SPPI was formerly known as the Center for Science and Public Policy for the Frontiers of Freedom, which was founded by former Republican senator and directing member of the El Paso Natural Gas Company Malcolm Wallop in February of 1995.
As of 2016, the organization’s executive director was Robert Ferguson, former chief of staff to several Republican members of Congress. The SPPI’s membership includes prominent climate change skeptics. Its chief policy advisor is Christopher Monckton, a former advisor to British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Its chief scientific advisor was once Willie Soon, an astrophysicist and geoscientist by training and a proponent of the theory that climate change is caused by solar variation and not by human activities. The activities of the SPPI have been supported by money from tobacco and oil companies, including Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds Tobacco, and ExxonMobil. By 1998, the SPPI had received $467,000 from ExxonMobil.
Significance for Climate Change
The SPPI funded a film titled Apocalypse? No! (2008), created to refute the theories highlighted in the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth (2006) The SPPI’s other projects and publications also center on environmentalist skeptism. In July 2008, SPPI policy advisor Monckton published in the journal Physics and Society an article arguing that computer models used by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were preprogrammed with erroneous values. These values, according to Monckton, effectively resulted in a 500 to 2000 percent overestimate of carbon-dioxide-induced effects on temperature that was reported in the 2007 UN climate assessment report. The SPPI is closely affiliated with other notable global warming skeptic organizations such as the Heartland Institute and the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change.
The SPPI has programs to continually monitor and review publications and projects centered on climate change. For example, SPPI’s ScareWatch program provided annotated bibliographies of publications that cover the negative implications of global warming and attempted to rebut and discredit organizations and individuals affiliated with such publications.
"Science and Public Policy Institute." Activist Facts,www.activistfacts.com/organizations/512-science-public-policy-institute/. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.
"Science and Public Policy Institute." DeSmog, 2016, www.desmog.com/science-and-public-policy-institute/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2024.