In an exclusive interview with edie, Farage says he has been a keen supporter of environmental issues since the late 1980’s but attacked those driving the movement today, claiming that it has turned into an ‘industry’.

“This industry has managed to bully weak minded politicians into making a series of decisions that actually aren’t good for biodiversity, sustainability or the environment,” says Farage.

Claiming to be an environmentalist, Farage slammed European leaders for lacking the necessary understanding to put effective environmental policies in place.

“Twenty seven prime ministers and presidents of Europe meet for a summit and say something must be done, like banning light bulbs, for example. And then go for new light bulbs that have mercury in them. It’s ridiculous,” he says.

He also criticised Tim Yeo, stating that the chairman of the select committee on climate change was not the right person for the job. “How can a man that is earning £145,000 a year under the renewable energy industry, chair a committee in parliament? Can someone explain that to me?”

Yeo, along with Labour’s Barry Gardiner, held a vote today to ensure a target to decarbonise electricity was in place by 2014. Part of an amendment to the Energy Bill, the green sector, along with several industry associations, called for the Government to vote in favour. However, it received a no vote earlier today.

Commenting prior to the vote, Farage said: “I think the entire environmental movement has focused on one issue [decarbonising] and one solution, and I suspect their wrong on both counts”.

“I am not saying that man is having no influence on the climate, although as the years go by it looks increasingly unlikely. It’s just odd to focus on carbon dioxide. I’m an environmentalist; I’m against carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide and toxins in our rivers.

“Yes, I’m all for pollution controls. However, to obsess with carbon dioxide, which as I understand it is a perfectly naturally occurring phenomenon, strikes me as strange.

“And to be told that the science [on global warming] is settled, it’s hard to accept. Where I grew up, our back wall joined onto Down House where Charles Darwin wrote [On the Origin of Species] and 150 years on, the science isn’t settled over Darwin because science is never settled”.

Read the whole interview ‘UKIP’s Nigel Farage on wind farms, global warming and the science of Charles Darwin’

Leigh Stringer

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