Paul Homewood

Credentials

According to Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, Homewood has “no professional qualifications or training in meteorology or climate”.¹

Background

Paul Homewood is a retired accountant and climate blogger, who has been writing on climate and energy issues since 2011, according to a report by the UK’s most prominent climate science denial group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).²

Homewood’s blog, “Not A Lot Of People Know That”, has had more than 12 million visitors since launching in 2011. Claiming it is “bringing some sanity to the Climate Change debate”, the site features thousands of posts critiquing mainstream climate science.³

Homewood is best known for his association with the late Telegraph columnist and climate sceptic Christopher Booker, who used his blog posts as a basis for a number of columns on climate science before his death in 2019. Homewood’s observations are also regularly quoted by Spectator and Breitbart columnist James Delingpole.⁴ ⁵

As well as posting nearly daily articles on his blog, Homewood is a regular contributor to The Conservative Woman, a conservative blog which launched as a “counter-cultural offensive against the forces of Leftism, feminism and modernism” in 2014.⁶

Homewood also writes regular reports and briefings for the GWPF, including “The US Climate in 2019” and “Defra versus Met Office – Fact-checking the state of the climate” (2018).⁷ ⁸

Stance on Climate Change

Homewood has repeatedly disputed mainstream climate change science in his blog posts, which are regularly quoted by climate science deniers.

2020

In a report for the GWPF, Homewood wrote:

“In short, the US climate is in most ways less extreme than it used to be. Temperatures are less extreme at both ends of the scale, storms less severe and droughts far less damaging. While it is now slightly warmer, this appears to have been largely beneficial.”⁹

September 30, 2019

In an article for The Conservative Woman, Homewood wrote:

“In short, although it is slightly warmer than it used to be, the UK climate has actually changed very little over the years. In particular, there is no evidence that weather has become more extreme. Heatwaves have not become more severe, nor droughts. Rainfall data offers no evidence that floods have become worse either. Neither is there any evidence from past trends that the climate will become significantly hotter, wetter or drier. Nor that sea level rise will accelerate.

“Widespread claims that we are now living through a climate emergency or breakdown are just so much hot air.”¹⁰

2018

Writing in a briefing for the Global Warming Policy Foundation, Homewood concluded:

“Apart from being slightly warmer, the UK’s climate appears to be little different to the Past.”¹¹

Key Quotes

September 22, 2019

Responding to a Brexit Party mailout on climate change, Homewood wrote that he’d previously approached the Brexit Party to “offer advice on climate and energy matters” but his offer was not accepted. He noted:

“Rather depressingly, even the Brexit Party have fallen for the climate emergency nonsense…

…It is a pity they did not bother to check the facts first.

“Ironically I contacted them a few months ago, offering advice on climate and energy matters, and was fobbed off.

“I am pretty sure most of their potential supporters can see through this nonsense, and a chance has been missed to get climate realism back into the public agenda.”¹² ¹³

April 19, 2019

In a blog post on the David Attenborough documentary Climate Change – The Facts (2019), Homewood wrote:

“Inevitably rising sea levels are mentioned, and Attenborough makes the bold claim that rising seas are already displacing hundreds of thousands of people from already vulnerable coastal areas.

“I have certainly never seen this claim before, and it seems pure hyperbole to me.”¹⁴

Key Actions

March 13, 2021

Homewood wrote an article for The Conservative Woman which commented on the decision by Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Robert Jenrick to block a plan for the development of a new coking coal mine in Cumbria. Criticising figures such as local MP Tim Farron and shadow business secretary Ed Miliband, who had also opposed the development of the mine, Homewood wrote: “I just hope they can look at themselves in the mirror, because there are many who will suffer as a result of their actions.”¹⁵

In the same article, Homewood commented: “There are 12,000 unemployed in Cumbria…desperately hoping for a job at the mine, or at least to benefit from the extra wealth brought into the area.” He added: “Now, thanks to Harrabin, Miliband, Farron and others, those hopes appear to be dashed. They should all be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.”

March 9, 2021

Homewood wrote a report for the Global Warming Policy Forum which dismissed warnings of the consequences of climate change and disputing the existence of climate-related food shortages or extreme weather events.¹⁶

He stated: “There are literally hundreds of scare stories, from deaf fish and giant oysters, weaker winds, stronger winds, obesity and UFOs. All things that would be caused or made worse by climate change,” adding: “While some are the work of cranks, far too many come from supposedly reputable sources, and are of course lapped up by the media, who are always desperate for headlines.”

The press release accompanying the report quoted Homewood as saying: “Calamity is the touchstone of the climate scientist, and getting it wrong is their default mode. Unfortunately, even on the rare occasions they bring us good news, such as claims that the UK would develop a Mediterranean climate, their predictions have proven no better.”¹⁷

December 17, 2020

In an article for The Conservative Woman, Homewood criticised a BBC Panorama programme entitled “Britain’s Wild Weather,” hosted by the BBC’s chief environment correspondent, Justin Rowlatt.¹⁸

Homewood disputed that climate change had caused more extreme weather events in Britain, referring to this claim as a “ridiculous assertion.” He added: “The BBC long ago realised that people would not be frightened by a slightly warmer climate, never mind radically change their lifestyles to suit the great Green Goddess. Hence attempts now to convince the public that global warming will unleash a climate apocalypse.”

October 28, 2020

Homewood criticised a BBC report exploring whether climate change “silver bullets” could deliver significant emissions reductions. He claimed the article by Environment Correspondent Roger Harrabin was “an all too transparent attempt to influence government policy” and said it was a “clear breach of BBC impartiality rules.”

Homewood said plans for a green recovery were “Meaningless flim flam, which will entail taxpayers’ money being used to subsidise businesses that commit to the green agenda.”

In the same article, Homewood also took issue with experts calling for individuals to reduce their meat and dairy consumption. He wrote: “Another policy which will devastate the UK farming industry. And how is it to be enforced – war time style meat rationing, taxation?” Homewood added that tree-planting proposals are “largely cosmetic”.

April 30, 2020

Homewood wrote an article for The Conservative Woman entitled: “The market leaders in climate mythology,” in which he wrote:¹⁹

“It is, of course, a widely perpetuated myth that climate change is leading to more extreme weather. It is a pity that those behind Four Twenty Seven (a climate risk data firm) have chosen to base their work on this myth, instead of researching the facts for themselves.”

He added: “The assessment also found that extremely cold spells are much less common now. In other words, temperatures in the US are much less extreme nowadays.”

January 23, 2018

Homewood was criticised by Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director at the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, for a Sunday Telegraph column by Christopher Booker which had quoted Homewood’s blog. Ward wrote:

“Mr Booker offered no evidence to support his conspiracy yarn, but instead admitted that his source was a blog by Paul Homewood, a retired accountant who has no professional qualifications or training in meteorology or climate. Although Mr Homewood also promotes the idea of a NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] conspiracy, his blog provides absolutely no evidence to substantiate his baseless accusation.”

January 24, 2015

Telegraph columnist Christopher Booker used a blog post from Homewood to claim that the world was being “tricked” on global warming, writing:

“Homewood had in fact uncovered yet another example of the thousands of pieces of evidence coming to light in recent years that show that something very odd has been going on with the temperature data relied on by the world’s scientists. And in particular by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has driven the greatest and most costly scare in history: the belief that the world is in the grip of an unprecedented warming.”

Affiliations

GWPF — Briefing author.

Homewood does not appear to be active on social media.

Publications

“Defra versus Met Office – Fact-checking the state of the climate,” Global Warming Policy Foundation, 2018
“The US Climate in 2019,” Global Warming Policy Foundation, 2020
“Britain’s Weather in 2019 – More of the same, again,” Global Warming Policy Foundation, 2020
“Plus ça change – The UK Climate in 2018,” Global Warming Policy Foundation, 2019

Other Resources

Resources

1
Bob Ward. “Sunday Telegraph column full of unchecked errors on US winter temperatures,” Grantham Institute, January 23, 2018. Archived October 29, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/noB2G
2
Paul Homewood. “The US Climate in 2019″ (PDF), GWPF, 2020. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
3
“About”, Not A Lot Of People Know That, 2020. Archived October 29, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/ISk2P
4
Christopher Booker. “Climategate, the sequel: How we are STILL being tricked with flawed data on global warming,” The Telegraph, January 25, 2015. Archived October 29, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/2hsQ7
5
“Tag: Paul Homewood,” Breitbart. Archived October 29, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/wip/9250S
6
The ConWom’s Culture War,” The Conservative Woman. Archived October 29, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/oy11t
7
Paul Homewood. “Defra versus Met Office,” (PDF), Global Warming Policy Foundation, 2018. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
8
Paul Homewood. “Climate emergency? Not here, not now!,” The Conservative Woman, September 30, 2019. Archived October 23, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/TkgpQ
9
Richard Collett-White. “Brexit Party Backtracks on Climate Action Statement, Blaming ‘Keen Young Staffer’,” DeSmog UK, October 1, 2019.
10
Paul Homewood. “Brexit Party Deceived by Greta,” Not A Lot Of People Know That, September 22, 2019. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/E4FP8
11
Paul Homewood. “Attenborough’s “Climate Change–The Facts,” Not A Lot Of People Know That, April 19, 2019. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/wip/kgYys
12
Paul Homewood. “Attenborough’s “Climate Change–The Facts,” Not A Lot Of People Know That, April 19, 2019. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/wip/kgYys
13
Roger Harrabin. “Climate change: Technology no silver bullet, experts tell PM,” BBC News, October 25, 2020. Archived November 19, 2020. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/Lb4vl
14
Paul Homewood. “Harrabin’s shopping list,” Not A Lot Of People Know That, October 28, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/fHgot
15
Paul Homewood. “Greens scent victory in campaign to kill off coal mine jobs,” The Conservative Woman, March 13, 2021. Archived March 15, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.ph/mHvTY
16
Paul Homewood. “A Short History of Climate Alarmism,” The Global Warming Policy Forum. Archived March 9, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/myWu1
17
(Press Release.) “Enjoy: A Short History of Climate Alarm!“ The Global Warming Policy Forum, March 9, 2021. Archived March 9, 2021. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/ARtAn
18
Paul Homewood. “On Panorama, it never rains but it pours bogus facts,” The Conservative Woman, December 17, 2020. Archived December 21, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/f85Ts
19
Paul Homewood. “On Panorama, it never rains but it pours bogus facts,” The Conservative Woman, December 17, 2020. Archived December 21, 2020. Archive.vn URL: https://archive.vn/f85Ts

DeSmog

DeSmog

Paul Homewood

Paul Homewood

Credentials

Background

Stance on Climate Change

Key Quotes

Key Actions

Affiliations

Publications

Other Resources

Resources

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DeSmog

DeSmog

Paul Homewood

Paul Homewood

Credentials

Background

Stance on Climate Change

Key Quotes

Key Actions

Affiliations

Social Media

Publications

Other Resources

Resources

Related Profiles

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