{"id":628783,"date":"2026-06-09T07:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T07:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/628783\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T07:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T07:08:09","slug":"christian-leaders-alarmed-by-climate-crisis-raise-questions-over-gb-news-owners-28m-church-donations-climate-science-scepticism-and-denial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/628783\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian leaders alarmed by climate crisis raise questions over GB News owner\u2019s \u00a328m church donations | Climate science scepticism and denial"},"content":{"rendered":"

The co-owner of GB News<\/a>, a British TV channel accused of broadcasting climate change denial, has donated \u00a328m to influential Church of England institutions that support climate action.<\/p>\n

This raises \u201cserious questions\u201d, say Christian leaders, given that Sir Paul Marshall\u2019s views on the climate crisis and those frequently broadcast on the TV channel are \u201cin direct opposition\u201d to the Church of England, which believes that<\/a> \u201cresponding to the climate crisis is an essential part of our responsibility to safeguard God\u2019s creation and achieve a just world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Marshall, a hedge fund manager and Christian who said recently<\/a> that the UK had been infected by \u201cclimate derangement syndrome\u201d, gave at least \u00a313m to Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) church and the Church Revitalisation Trust (CRT) via his Sequoia Trust between 2018 and 2025, according to Guardian analysis of accounts filed with the Charity Commission.<\/p>\n

HTB is the largest church in the Church of England, with a congregation of about 4,000, and is home to the evangelical Alpha Course, which has reached 37 million people in more than 175 countries, according to Alpha International. Marshall has been a member of the congregation since 1997<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The CRT, also known as the Re-vitalise Trust, is run from HTB, and has established more than 100 evangelical churches around the UK. Marshall is also a director of CRT.<\/p>\n

Some critics of Marshall\u2019s views fear that the money could influence the church institutions\u2019 attitudes towards the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

Rev Dr Darrell Hannah, the chair of Operation Noah, a leading UK Christian climate charity, said: \u201cAs the climate crisis intensifies, we\u2019re increasingly concerned that a fellow Christian \u2013 one with more money and power than virtually any other Christian in the UK \u2013 continues to share problematic and highly influential views on the most important issue of our time. This cannot go unchallenged.\u201d Operation Noah was instrumental in getting nearly every UK denomination to divest from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarshall\u2019s views are in direct opposition to those of the Church of England,\u201d Hannah said. \u201cGiven his outsized influence on our country \u2013 and in light of his problematic views on the most significant moral and practical challenge of our time \u2013 serious questions need to be asked about Sir Paul Marshall\u2019s donations to faith groups, and specifically to the Church of England.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Church of England has a routemap<\/a> for all parts of the church to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and has divested<\/a> its multibillion-pound endowment and pension funds from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

GB News broadcast 953 attacks on climate science and climate action around the 2024 general election, according to a report<\/a>. The channel has been accused of broadcasting climate change denial<\/a>, including descriptions of global heating as \u201cthe climate scam\u201d and suggestions the government was going to introduce \u201cenforced veganism\u201d.<\/p>\n

Marshall, who has a net worth of \u00a3950m<\/a>, said recently that efforts to cut planet-heating emissions were \u201cimpoverishing people\u201d. Marshall also owns the Spectator magazine and UnHerd website and has given large donations to schools and the London School of Economics.<\/p>\n

The Church of England, Holy Trinity Brompton and the Church Revitalisation Trust did not respond to questions sent by the Guardian.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Marshall said: \u201cSir Paul generally agrees with Christian and Anglican teaching on the environment and climate change. Like many people, including many Christians, he just doesn\u2019t subscribe to net zero by 2050 due to the serious negative impact on poor people, their communities and the economy. Instead, he prefers to allow human innovation to adapt to and to limit climate change. This is a perfectly reasonable position held by millions of people, including many Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Central banks<\/a>, regulators, global consultancies<\/a> and academic experts<\/a> going back to the 2006 Stern review<\/a> have all found the cost of climate action is far less than the economic damage caused by lack of action.<\/p>\n

In March, Marshall was criticised by a group of more than 120 church leaders<\/a>, including the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and two current bishops, over his climate views and GB News\u2019s attacks on climate science and action. The group also raised the \u00a31.8bn of fossil fuel investments<\/a> reportedly held in 2023 by the hedge fund Marshall manages and asked him to be transparent about any personal conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n

In his response to the group, Marshall said the extent to which global heating was being caused by human actions was \u201cstill subject to debate\u201d.<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s climate scientists, in reports signed off by 192 national governments, have been clear for more than a decade that about 100% of global heating since 1950<\/a> was caused by human emissions and activities.<\/p>\n

Marshall is the chair of the Sequoia Trust \u2013 a charity helping \u201cchildren\/young people \u2026 the general public\/mankind\u201d, according to its Charity Commission filing. It is run from the offices of Marshall\u2019s hedge fund, MWAM. The trust had a market value of \u00a3477m on 30 June 2025, the most recent figure available.<\/p>\n

HTB, where Marshall worships, received \u00a35m in donations between 2018 and 2024. Its environment policy<\/a> states: \u201cWe encourage our congregation to embrace sustainable lifestyles and make environmentally conscious choices in their daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CRT, which is run from HTB, received \u00a313m in donations and grant commitments between 2018 and 2024 from the Sequoia Trust.<\/p>\n

Unlike in previous years, the Sequoia Trust accounts for 2024-25 do not name the recipients of donations, but record \u00a310.2m given to faith-based institutions. It is not known how much of this \u00a310.2m went to HTB and CRT, and Marshall declined to comment on this.<\/p>\n

The broadcasting regulator Ofcom decided in May to investigate<\/a> whether GB News had breached rules on \u201cdue impartiality and material misleadingness\u201d in relation to a repeat showing of an interview with Donald Trump in November. Complainants said the US president\u2019s claims about climate change being \u201ca hoax\u201d had gone unchallenged.<\/p>\n

The network said at the time: \u201cGB News stands firmly by its journalism and editorial standards.\u201d It declined a request to comment on Marshall\u2019s church donations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The co-owner of GB News, a British TV channel accused of broadcasting climate change denial, has donated \u00a328m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-628783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}