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Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR)

Website:

climate-reporting.org/
Type:

Journalist Group
Co-Founder and Director:

Lawrence Carter

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The Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) is a U.K.-based journalism nonprofit organization that focuses on investigative reporting regarding climate change. The organization is known for using deceptive tactics during its investigations and has resorted to creating fake websites, using aliases to set up interviews, operating hidden cameras to record said interviews, and releasing audio recordings of those interviews online. 1 2

Two members of the organization posed as relatives of a fake New Mexico-based conservative donor in order to secretly record Center for Renewing America founder and former Trump administration official Russell Vought during an interview in July 2024. 3

The Centre for Climate Reporting, working alongside the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), reported in November 2023 that the United Arab Emirates host team for the 2023 United Nations Conference of Parties, commonly known as COP28, had pre-prepared talking points in an attempt to create new oil deals with 15 nations during pre-conference meetings. 4 5

Activities

July 2024 Meeting with Russell Vought

Two members of the Centre for Climate Reporting arranged a meeting with Center for Renewing America founder and former Trump administration official Russell Vought in Washington D.C. in July 2024. CCR members posed as relatives of a fake New Mexico-based conservative donor and used other tactics such as creating fake websites and a fake LinkedIn profile and planting hidden cameras and recording devices within the hotel suite where the interview was held to obtain compromising statements from Vought. During the interview, Vought claimed that the Center for Renewing America was creating drafts of executive orders, regulations, and other memos that could be used if Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. He also discussed policy proposals regarding immigration, such as the deportation of illegal immigrants within the United States. 6

Following the interview, the clips of the recordings were released online and to several news outlets including CNN. Centre co-founder and director Lawrence Carter defended the tactics used, claiming, “We broadly follow the UK’s press regulator guidelines on this, which say that it is justified if it is in the public interest and not obtainable via other means… [w]e therefore weigh the subject’s reasonable expectation of privacy with the public interest.” 7

COP28

The Centre for Climate Reporting, working alongside the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), reported in November 2023 that the United Arab Emirates host team for the 2023 United Nations Conference of Parties, commonly known as COP28, had pre-prepared talking points in an attempt to create new oil deals with 15 nations during pre-conference meetings. 8 9

The investigation, which focused on leaked briefing documents, alleged that COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber was given briefing notes created by the UAE’s conventional energy companies, with the goal of securing oil and gas deals for the UAE. 10

Al Jaber denied the claims, stating that the “allegations are false, not true, incorrect, and not accurate,” adding “never ever did I see these talking points that they refer to or that I ever even used such talking points in my discussions.” 11

The lead reporter of the investigation, Ben Stockton, claimed in an interview that the inquiry was based on a 150-plus page briefing document and over two dozen internal emails sent to him by a whistleblower “who was concerned about the direction COP28 was taking.” According to Stockton, a second whistleblower corroborated the contents of the documents, which convinced the BBC to co-publish the investigation with CCR. 12

Funding

The Centre for Climate Reporting states on its website that it is funded by various left-of-center grantmaking foundations. CCR notes that it is funded by the Energy Transition Fund, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, one of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations that has provided over $4 billion in grants across more than 70 countries; the KR Foundation, a private philanthropic organization based in Copenhagen, Denmark that provides grants to programs that work to end private financing of oil and gas, as well as pressuring banks to no longer finance conventional fuel companies; and the European Climate Foundation, a left-of-center non-profit “network of hundreds of organizations” that funds climate change-orientated advocacy organizations in Europe. 13 14 15 16

According to its 2023 annual report, the KR Foundation granted the Centre for Climate Reporting DKK 693,552 (approximately $102,902) in 2023 for “investigating the enablers of climate obstruction.” 17

References

  1. Devine, Curt. “In secretly recorded video, Project 2025 co-author says he’s drafted hundreds of executive orders for Trump.” CNN Politics. August 15, 2024. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/russ-vought-project-2025-trump-secret-recording-invs/index.html.
  2. Stockton, Ben. “Home.” Centre for Climate Reporting. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://climate-reporting.org/.
  3. Devine, Curt. “In secretly recorded video, Project 2025 co-author says he’s drafted hundreds of executive orders for Trump.” CNN Politics. August 15, 2024. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/russ-vought-project-2025-trump-secret-recording-invs/index.html.
  4. Rowlatt, Justin. “UAE planned to use COP28 climate talks to make oil deals.” BBC News. November 27, 2023. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67508331.
  5. “How a Small Nonprofit Newsroom Broke the Oil Deal Pitching Scandal at COP28.” Accessed September 2, 2024. https://gijn.org/stories/nonprofit-newsroom-oil-scandal-cop28/.
  6. Devine, Curt. “In secretly recorded video, Project 2025 co-author says he’s drafted hundreds of executive orders for Trump.” CNN Politics. August 15, 2024. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/russ-vought-project-2025-trump-secret-recording-invs/index.html.
  7. Devine, Curt. “In secretly recorded video, Project 2025 co-author says he’s drafted hundreds of executive orders for Trump.” CNN Politics. August 15, 2024. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/russ-vought-project-2025-trump-secret-recording-invs/index.html
  8. “How a Small Nonprofit Newsroom Broke the Oil Deal Pitching Scandal at COP28.” Accessed September 2, 2024. https://gijn.org/stories/nonprofit-newsroom-oil-scandal-cop28/.
  9. Rowlatt, Justin. “UAE planned to use COP28 climate talks to make oil deals.” BBC News. November 27, 2023. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-67508331.
  10. “How a Small Nonprofit Newsroom Broke the Oil Deal Pitching Scandal at COP28.” Accessed September 2, 2024. https://gijn.org/stories/nonprofit-newsroom-oil-scandal-cop28/.
  11. “How a Small Nonprofit Newsroom Broke the Oil Deal Pitching Scandal at COP28.” Accessed September 2, 2024. https://gijn.org/stories/nonprofit-newsroom-oil-scandal-cop28/.
  12. “How a Small Nonprofit Newsroom Broke the Oil Deal Pitching Scandal at COP28.” Accessed September 2, 2024. https://gijn.org/stories/nonprofit-newsroom-oil-scandal-cop28/.
  13. Stockton, Ben. “Home.” Centre for Climate Reporting. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://climate-reporting.org/.
  14. “Home.” Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://www.rockpa.org/.
  15. “List of Grants 2021.” KR Foundation. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://krfnd.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/List-of-grants_2021_final.pdf.
  16. “Why ECF.” European Climate Foundation. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://europeanclimate.org/why-ecf/.
  17. “Annual Report 2023.” KR Foundation. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://krfnd.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/KRF-annual-report-23_web-min.pdf.
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