Australia’s richest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has been revealed as a key funder of the rightwing thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs – a consistent promoter of climate science scepticism.
The IPA has close ties to the Liberal party and IPA fellows regularly appear in the media.
According to Forbes, Rinehart was the seventh-richest woman in the world in 2017 and Australia’s richest person, with current wealth estimated to be $17.6bn.
The IPA has a long history of publishing books and sponsoring speaking tours of prominent climate science deniers.
Prof Ian Plimer, another prominent geologist who rejects climate change science, sits on the board of Hancock Prospecting subsidiary Roy Hill Holdings.
An IPA-sponsored climate study that claimed most global warming was natural was heavily promoted among conservative media outlets around the world.
Climate scientists who reviewed the paper, which had appeared in a journal, described the work as “junk science”. »