Thinktank linked to tech giant Canon under pressure to remove ‘dangerous’ climate articles

A thinktank linked to Japanese technology giant Canon is coming under pressure to remove multiple articles from a research director who describes the climate crisis as "fake news" and compares campaigner Greta Thunberg to a communist.

One Australia-based international fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS), Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite, told the Guardian the claims about climate science from research director Dr Taishi Sugiyama were "not defensible".

Campaign group Action Speaks Louder, which has produced a report documenting Sugiyama's claims, says the institute is "promoting dangerous climate delay and denial" and is demanding Canon withdraws support until the articles, which include a book aimed at school-age children, are removed.

In articles on the institute's website and in other outlets, Sugiyama, using his CIGS affiliation, says there is no climate crisis, and rejects evidence of increasing heat extremes and more intense rainfall.

During November's Glasgow climate talks, Sugiyama, who has helped write several major UN climate reports, said a speech from the Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg showed she had "turned from an environmentalist to a communist".

Sugiyama also authored a book, published this year, encouraging Japanese school children to question the science of climate change. His work is often published on conservative outlet Daily Will, and then republished on the CIGS website.

Braithwaite, an internationally respected healthcare expert who is a CIGS fellow, told the Guardian he found the content from Sugiyama on the CIGS website "deeply disconcerting".