NORTHERN IRELAND Environment Minister Sammy Wilson is standing by his controversial decision to block a British government advertisement campaign on climate change amid calls for his removal from office.
The DUP Minister described the content of the adverts to raise public awareness on energy consumption and carbon emissions, as “partly information and partly insidious propaganda”.
“The information part is telling people . . . that you can save energy if you turn off your lights and turn off your TV and everything else,” he said.
“The second part said that in doing so they would stop climate change, and since we all have a carbon footprint which leads to the Earth warming up, then you could affect the environment. I have a particular difficulty with that . . . and I think there are a large number of scientists, politicians and economists who would share my view on that.
Mr Wilson’s decision was met with a mixture of incredulity and anger, both by Northern politicians and environmentalists.
Green Party Assembly member Brian Wilson called for his namesake to be dismissed from office. He said the Minister’s position was “incompatible with him being Minister for the Environment”.
SDLP environment spokesman Tommy Gallagher accused Mr Wilson of “personal political sabotage of an important public awareness campaign”.
Friends of the Earth NI director John Woods said: “It’s bad enough that we have an environment minister who doesn’t accept that human activity is driving climate change, but trying to block advice to people . . . is completely irresponsible.”
The Minister, however, was unfazed by such criticism. Asked to comment on the Green Party’s call for his resignation he said: “This shows a kind of intolerance from the Greens. They don’t like anybody who takes a different view from them, and they think that they, and only they, have got any responsibility and right to pronounce on the environment.
“I suppose it’s more an indicator of their immaturity . . . than any real threat to me. It’ll not worry me at all, in fact it’ll probably enhance my reputation.”