Northern Ireland's environment minister Sammy Wilson was censored this month by a committee at the Stormont Assembly. A vote of no confidence has been given to the minister, who has denied man-made climate change. The vote followed the Democratic Ulster party MP's decision to ban a TV advert calling for emissions cuts which he branded "insidious New Labour propaganda."
Some members of the Committee said Wilson's views were not consistent with those of the Northern Ireland power sharing executive. The motion was passed by six votes to four, with one abstention. The Social Democratic and Labour Party's Tommy Gallagher, who proposed the motion, said there was concern at Wilson's comments. "The view is that the minister's remarks are seen as outrageous and his approach is a very small-minded one. We need to be seen to be taking environmental issues much more seriously than the minister appears to be taking them."
Amongst the calls for Wilson's removal from office was Friends of the Earth director John Woods, who commented, "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 on how they can help tackle it is completely irresponsible. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of climate scientists believe that our activities are causing global warming and that urgent action is needed to tackle it."
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