Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)
Background information for reporters
The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) is a free-market group that has
“waged a decades-long war on environmental activism.”
Over the past 15 years, CFACT has worked to distort and attack the scientific consensus on
climate change, and to confuse public opinion on the issue, regularly employing or sponsoring
professional deniers and contrarians to peddle doubt and misinformation. It is a regular sponsor
of the Heartland Institute’s climate change denier conferences (see Heartland info sheet).
CFACT is a member of the Cooler Heads Coalition, which describes its aim as “dispelling the
myths of global warming through sound science and analysis.”
Their views run against 97 percent of all peer-reviewed scientific research on climate change
and are counter to every major science academy in the world.
In December 2009, CFACT was a co-organiser of the Copenhagen Climate Challenge, a
conference for climate change deniers during the UN climate change conference. CFACT’s
Craig Rucker told the press at the time: “We think there is no consensus on climate change and
there should not be a treaty from Copenhagen based on a lack of consensus.”
In December 2012, one of CFACT’s delegates to the COP18 climate talks in Doha, Lord
Christopher Monckton was permanently expelled from the talks for impersonating an official
UN party delegate. Monckton, who is not a climate scientist, will appear in Rome at the press
conferences organised by CFACT and the Heartland Institute (see full list of “experts” for
Rome). Monckton has described the Pope Francis encyclical as a “climate-Communist”
declaration.
CFACT’s other main speaker at the Rome events is Marc Morano, former communications
director for the US’s most prominent Republican climate denier, Sen. James Inhofe. CFACT
hired Morano to run its new offshoot, ClimateDepot. Morano has regularly posted the email
addresses of climate scientists on his website which has contributed to many scientists
receiving vitriolic hate mail and, in some cases, death threats. What does Morano think about
climate scientists? He once said: "I seriously believe we should kick them while they're down.
They deserve to be publicly flogged." He is exposed in a new film about science denial tactics
called “Merchants of Doubt,” where Morano boasts about his role in the targeting of climate
scientists.
CFACT Funders
CFACT has received over $4.1 million in funds from Donors Trust (DT) and Donors Capital Fund
(DCF) between 2002-2011, plus an additional $582,000 from ExxonMobil between 1998-2012.
CFACT is among over a dozen organizations that get 30-70 per cent of their funding from
Donors Trust and DCF - shadowy foundations described as the “dark money ATM” of the
conservative right wing in the US. The DT and DCF have received significant funds through
foundations controlled and financed by the US oil billionaire Koch brothers.

 History:
CFACT was founded in 1985 to pursue a free-market approach to environmental issues. They
describe their role as “relentlessly infusing the environmental debate with a balanced
perspective on environmental stewardship.”
Resources:
DeSmogBlog information page: http://www.desmogblog.com/committee-constructive-tomorrow
SourceWatch information page:
http://sourcewatch.org/index.php/Committee_for_a_Constructive_Tomorrow
Monckton quote on “climate-Communism” :http://www.climatedepot.com/2015/01/03/the-greatpause-lengthens-again-global-temperature-update-the-pause-is-now-18-years-3-months/
DeSmog Media Contacts:
UK: Brendan Montague brendan@desmog.uk +44 7590 030201
US: Brendan DeMelle brendan@desmogblog.com +01 206-295-4399