LONDON - Politicians and scientists have expressed outrage after the leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP) was selected to represent the European Parliament at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen next week.
Nick Griffin, who last week described climate change campaigners as cranks, confirmed Saturday that he would attend as the representative of the parliament’s environmental committee, The Observer newspaper reported Sunday.
Griffin, whose party is opposed to immigration and admits only whites, was elected to the European Parliament in June and will be one of 15 representatives who will speak on behalf of the European Union at the summit in December.
In a speech in the European Parliament last week, Griffin said climate change consensus was “based not on scientific agreement, but on bullying, censorship and fraudulent statistics.”
“Climate change is being used to impose an anti-human utopia as deadly as anything conceived by Stalin or Mao,” he said.
Greg Clark, the environment spokesman for the opposition Conservative Party condemned the move, saying: “It is utterly ridiculous that someone who doesn’t even believe in climate change should be seeking to represent Europe in Copenhagen. The BNP does not command the support of the people of Britain, let alone of the rest of Europe.”
Tim Yeo, chairman of the British Parliament’s environmental audit committee, said: “If the future prosperity of the human race, in the face of climate change, depends on the contributions of people like Nick Griffin, there is little hope for any of us.”
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