UKIP Wales leader Nathan Gill: Climate change not man made

Nathan Gill said it was 'complete stupidity' to think wind turbines would stop climate change

The leader of UKIP in Wales has claimed climate change is not man made.

Speaking on BBC Wales' Sunday Supplement, Nathan Gill also said it was "complete stupidity to think by sticking a bunch of wind turbines all over Wales that we are somehow going to stop the weather from changing".

His comments were criticised by Labour, Tories, Lib Dems, Plaid and the Greens who say humans affect climate change.

Mr Gill said it was simply an excuse to tax people.

He told the programme: "We don't agree that man is responsible for changing the climate.

"We think it's hubris and we also think that governments have realised this is a great way of taxing people and people will say 'thank you for taxing us because you're going to save the world'."

He said it was "ridiculous" to think man could change the climate, saying: "A volcano eruption will produce more CO2 than man has ever been able to produce in the short time since the industrial revolution."

'Heating up the planet'

Pippa Bartolotti, leader of the Green Party in Wales, told BBC's Sunday Politics Wales programme climate change was man made.

She said: "The CO2 which is being burnt every time we use fossil fuels goes into the atmosphere and is heating up the planet.

"Greenhouses gases are going to cause global warming of up to six degrees if we don't do something about it now."

On twitter, Labour's Carl Sargeant, the Welsh government's environment minister, said it was "bonkers" to suggest climate change wasn't affected by humans.

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davie said: "Like many other UKIP policies, what Nathan Gill's comments reveal is simplicity of thinking. We all accept that climate change needs to be dealt with without conspiracy theorism"

Roger Williams, deputy leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: "It's staggering to hear that UKIP deny the existence of man-made climate change.

"Once again, UKIP is trying to take us backwards, rather than forwards."

And Plaid's parliamentary candidate for Pontypridd, Osian Lewis, said: "Like any other sensible party, Plaid Cymru looks to the experts for evidence on policy.

"More than 95% of experts agree that climate change is a man-made reality that poses danger to our communities.

"As a man-made problem, it is also within man's gift to slow the effects of climate change."