One of the Government’s most senior climate advisers also works for a company providing advice to Qatari ministers who sell gas to the UK, The Telegraph can reveal.

       Lord Deben, who chairs the Climate Change Committee (CCC), is also chairman of an “international sustainability consultancy” that has a contract with the Qatari government - one of Britain’s biggest gas suppliers.

       In February, the committee wrote to Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, advising him that while the UK should continue to use oil and gas on its journey to Net Zero, ministers should support a “tighter limit on production” and “a presumption against exploration” in the North Sea, and rely on imports instead.

       “An end to UK exploration would send a clear signal to investors and consumers that the UK is committed to the 1.5 degree Celsius global temperature goal,” the committee said.

       Ministers have instead said that exploration and drilling of oil and gas should continue in the North Sea because it will help the UK be more independent of other countries, from which it imports much of its fossil fuels.

       Qatar is one of the UK’s biggest energy suppliers, and accounted for 48 per cent of total gas imports to Britain in 2020.

       In November, at around the same time the company Lord Deben chairs, Sancroft International, was contracted to work for the Qatari government, it was reported that Doha was looking to expand its exports to the UK market.

       Although Lord Deben says that he has declared his company’s Qatari contract in the House of Lords and climate change committee's registers of interest, the CCC’s meeting minutes show he has yet to raise a potential conflict of interest in committee.

       The committee’s transparency policy requires members to declare any new interests, but the minutes show Lord Deben has not discussed the contract at any meeting in the last year. The updated CCC register of interests is due to be published shortly and he says he has declared his interests appropriately.

       The Conservative peer, who was known as John Gummer while working as an MP in Suffolk until 1983, denies any conflict of interest.

       “There can be no conflict of interest in advising people everywhere that sustainability demands that they move away from fossil fuels,” he said. “All correct procedures were followed.”

       Sancroft’s contract with Qatar is to work with them on their “sustainability strategy”, alongside Bain & Company, a management consultancy firm.

       Its website says it can offer companies advice on making their supply chains more sustainable and “empowering you to make profits you can be proud of”.

       The company is run on a day-to-day basis by Lord Deben’s son, Felix Gummer.

       Sancroft also claims to have “expertise” on “embedding human rights throughout your business” and on “every level of the development and implementation of a human rights strategy”.

       Human rights charities have previously warned of human rights abuses in Qatar, which retains the death penalty in law for apostasy, gay sex and blasphemy.

       Amnesty International has raised concerns about the arrest and imprisonment of journalists, the persecution of gay people and “abusive practices” towards migrant workers.

       Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said Lord Deben should declare his company’s relationship with Qatar in all correspondence with the Government on behalf of the CCC.

       There is no reference to the Qatari contract on the advice he has sent to ministers, which suggests Britain should not drill nearby fossil fuel wells and reduce its reliance on imports - although he is not required to declare it on individual pieces of work.

       “I would have thought he should go further. He should go to considerable lengths to explain his relationship,” Mr Graham said.

       “If there is a current contract going on between his company and the Qatari government, it’s just a common sense thing that you should draw to attention the link you have got with this government, and presumably a possible financial interest.

       “It seems to me that he needs to go the extra mile to demonstrate that he has drawn attention to the Committee and the Government his particular relationship.”

       Chris Stark, the CCC’s chief executive, said its members are “required to adhere to the principles of public office” and follow a “clear policy on conflicts of interest” that has been assessed as “robust” by a Government auditor.