Would you like to hear about the links between a Welsh think tank and paid Facebook adverts denying climate change?

Of course you do!

This is quite a tangled web so let's pick through it together...

It starts with a Facebook page called Eco Central.

Like many Facebook pages it is initially unclear who actually runs it.

The page has spent thousands of pounds on adverts designed to prevent action to stop climate change.

It claims that those calling for action on emissions are a “cult” as well as saying “climate change isn’t about saving the planet...It’s about fear. It is about power”.

Claims include the enormous wildfires we have seen in recent years were actually caused by green policies.

It also calls on young people to not be taught about climate change in school and attacks D.Attenborough's campaign to stop damage to the natural world as “fake news”
Eg:

Just to be absolutely clear - these claims are all incorrect.

It is a scientific fact that climate change is happening and is caused by the action of humans.

You can read some of the myths about climate change debunked here: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/environment-myths-warming-climate-change-17504669

But there are loads of these disinformation accounts on FB - why is this one significant?

Well this one has links to a Welsh think tank - the Centre for Welsh Studies.

According to the disclaimers on Eco Central page, some of the nearly £4,000 that has been spent on adverts on the page came from the Centre for Welsh Studies.

So what is the Centre for Welsh Studies?

It is a pro Brexit think tank based in Cardiff Bay.

It has quite a few well known names on its board of advisors including 3 Tory MPs: former sec of state for Wales David Jones, MP for Vale of Clwyd James Davies and MP Sarah Atherton.

However these MPs are advisors, they do not run the think tank.

The Centre for Welsh Studies is actually a private limited company which according to both the website and Companies House is run by its chairman 28-year-old Matthew MacKinnon (pictured in the pink shirt below).

When WalesOnline asked Mr Mackinnon why his think tank was paying for adverts on a page that denies climate change he sent us this reply:

“The Eco Central project is nothing at all to do with the Centre for Welsh Studies.

“It is a project run for a client by Consulate Communications Limited. A totally separate company, who works with various clients in the private sector.

“This is strictly a private contract and does not have any link what so ever with any work I or my colleagues do for the Centre for Welsh Studies Ltd.

“Any suggestion that the Centre for Welsh Studies is behind Eco Central are untrue".

For good measure he added: “If there is a published accusation that the Centre for Welsh Studies is paying for Eco Central adverts, then we will be forced to take this further.”

When we pressed Mr MacKinnon on why Facebook recorded the Centre for Welsh Studies as doing exactly that - paying for Eco Central adverts, he told us it was because the Facebook page had been renamed.

He said the page was originally used by the CWS for a 2019 campaign called “Clean Brexit Cymru”.

This is backed by the FB transparency info showing the page was created on January 28, 2019 as "Clean Brexit Cymru - the Grassroots Campaign" & renamed on 26/05/20, as Eco Central.

While under its first name, the Centre for Welsh Studies paid for five adverts promoting Brexit including leaving without a deal.

Mr MacKinnnon said that when this campaign ended, the page was “gifted” to Consulate Communications as it was no longer used.

This not an insignificant gift.

In the digital age, being able to reach people is a valuable asset and having a Facebook presence which already has followers is a commodity worth having.

Something that many companies are willing to pay for.

So what is Consulate Communications and who runs it?

Back to Companies House for this one.

According to the official records Consulate Communications Ltd was started in September 2019. They have two directors one of which is ... Matthew MacKinnon!

So even if the Centre for Welsh Studies has not paid to advertise on Eco Central, it has still provided indirect support through Mr MacKinnon's consultancy by the gift of its page which would have built up followers with the help of the funds it provided.

Those people who followed the Clean Brexit Cymru Page thinking it was a campaign to leave the EU are now being spammed by disinformation about climate change.

Mr MacKinnon told WalesOnline that Eco Central is “a project run for a client by Consulate Communications Limited” which is “a totally separate company, who works with various clients in the private sector” and this work has no "link whatsoever to the Centre for Welsh Studies".

But this is thrown into doubt because the Eco Central page has benefited from a significant gift of a page grown using funds from the Centre for Welsh Studies and which is also likely to have attracted followers because of that.

TBF to the 3 MPs involved in the think tank, they seem to have had no knowledge of Mr MacKinnon’s extra curricular activities.

Mr Jones said he had not heard of Eco Central and has no links to it.

Mr Jones does seem to be on good terms with Mr MacKinnon.

Here is a picture of them together during the EU referendum count in 2016:

Full story below.

Massive credit to environmental investigations outlet @DeSmogUK who conducted the initial investigation into the page.

Check them out. A great organisation that deserves your support. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/centre-welsh-studies-matthew-mackinnon-19293157