RESPONDING to London's recent smog alert, the Global Warming Policy Forum – a climate change sceptical thinktank – has called on the Government to abolish all support for wood-burners, claiming that they are posing a growing threat to the health of urban populations.

Unusually high amount of domestic wood burning, some of which are subsidised under the Renewable Heat Incentive, have been partly blamed for the latest smog alarm.

Wood-burning has been incentivised by the Government as a policy to decarbonise the residential sector and has been increasing rapidly in recent years, due to the combination of green subsidies and climate campaigning. But the result, according to the GWPF, has been a deterioration of air quality in many cities.

In a recent report, the Royal College of Physicians warned that "the increasing popularity of wood burning for heating, in part due to policies to reduce CO2 emissions, risks undoing some of the air quality improvements that have resulted from widespread adoption of gas for domestic heating."

“The government has a responsibility to reduce the negative impact of wood-burning on health and should now abolish any support which is increasing the risk to the health and well-being of urban populations,” said GWPF director Dr Benny Peiser.