Billionaire-Backed Green Group Working To Ban Gas Stoves Counts Chinese Official as Top Adviser

A deep-pocketed green energy group working to ban gas stoves in the United States counts as a top adviser a Chinese government official who has urged his nation to compete with America on climate change.

Climate Imperative, a green nonprofit with a nearly $1 billion budget thanks to funding from billionaires Laurene Powell Jobs and John Doerr, lists Chinese Academy of Sciences professor Wang Yi as a member of its advisory council. The group does not disclose, however, that Wang also serves in China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress. Wang even sits on the Congress’s Standing Committee, according to a Chinese environmental research group to which he belongs. That committee consists of government insiders who wield state power to accomplish Communist Party goals when the full Congress is not in session.

With Wang as an adviser, Climate Imperative has awarded grants to the Building Decarbonization Coalition, another green nonprofit that works to “transition to clean buildings that don’t run on gas.” Climate Imperative executive director Bruce Nilles, meanwhile, in December outlined his goal to get “methane gas out of homes and buildings.” “It turns out that fossil fuels and humans don’t actually coexist very well,” Nilles said.

It’s unclear how much Wang has influenced Climate Imperative in the group’s bid to do away with natural gas. Climate Imperative, which did not return a request for comment, says its advisers provide “independent, expert advice” to the group and do not “endorse or approve specific grants.” . – READ MORE