The leader of the Free Democratic Movement said the idea that natural resources are running out is used “to control humanity”.

During an interview outlining the party’s stance on various issues, Marc Bean said that fears of man-made climate change were overblown.

He said: “Climate change is a convenient term that’s being used by certain segments of society which is actually predicated on the idea of limited resources and mankind is the problem.

“’The reason why the environment is suffering is because we have ‘too many people on the Earth’ — that’s where it’s coming from.

“But the FDM doesn’t subscribe to this whole idea of climate change.”

Mr Bean clarified that he did believe in human-led climate change and found it important to discuss sustainability.

However, he maintained that the overconsumption of fossil fuels had been “politicised” and exaggerated, adding that it implied that the planet was overpopulated.

Mr Bean said: “We are pro-environment — we are actually lovers of nature — but we don’t see the environment as a political construct.

“From our perspective, we are about protecting nature, but we don’t feel that it needs to be utilised from a political perspective to hinder or harm the progress of humanity.”

He added: “This idea that we’re running out of resources is used as a proxy to control humanity.

“That’s the reason why this whole idea of climate change has nothing to do with nature and everything to do with man-made politics of control.”

There is virtually unanimous agreement among climate scientists that human activity is the cause of an unnaturally fast rate of global warming.

This warming, as concluded by scientists, has been driven mainly by the burning of fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution, and worsened by deforestation.

Studies into the likelihood and effects of man-made climate change have been conducted since the 1970s, and have had widespread consensus since the 1990s.

Recommendations to mitigate these effects have focused on reducing the use of fossil fuels and switching to more reliable energy sources.

Mr Bean instead pledged to install liquid natural gas as the backbone of Bermuda’s energy industry.

He criticised renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power as being “overly expensive” and unreliable in terms of energy output.

He said: “It sounds good in theory, but in practice we know that is not consistent and that it is not reliable.

“To be an international business jurisdiction, we have to have reliable energy sources.”

Mr Bean added that liquid natural gas, or LNG, had the ideal balance of energy output, reliability and cleanliness needed to fuel a sustainable energy grid.

He also pointed out that Belco’s North Power Plant had initially been designed to process LNG.

Mr Bean said that the FDM, if elected, would sit down with Belco and propose the long-term use of LNG.

He added that he would be willing to look into the potential use of nuclear power, which has been deemed one of the cleanest, safest and most efficient sources of renewable energy.

Mr Bean said: “That is a responsible approach to dealing with energy security.

“But in the meantime, we know that LNG is the most efficient and effective way to ensure energy security.”

Omar Dill, the regional manager for the FDM, said that there were environmental problems that Bermuda needed to contend with.

He explained: “Bermuda has a lot of work to do – litter, how we dispose of our trash, the airport dump.

“There are a lot of issues that affect the climate that we live in, like Belco burning heavy diesel oil.

“Those are important issues that need to be addressed.”

Mr Dill added: “There’s a different between things that are put in place to look good and sound good and actual, real tangible change.

“Real tangible change for Bermuda is LNG and cleaning that airport dump.

“Our litter problem is horrible — that affects our tourism.

“We talk about the rules and regulations — or lack thereof — of pesticide spraying.

“These are real tangible things that affect the water that we drink every day.”

“Those are real, present, current-day local issues that affect the environment that we really should be focusing on, not some abstract concept.”