BBC forced to apologise after climate change row

THE BBC has been forced to apologise for claims made by Lord Lawson about climate change on Radio 4.

The Corporation admitted that its editorial guidelines on accuracy and impartiality had been breached by the comments made by the Tory peer on the Today programme.

The show’s editors had initially rejected the complaints, arguing that it was important to show ‘dissenting voices’ such as that of Lord Lawson, well-known for his climate-change scepticism, to provide its coverage with balance.

But, as listeners escalated their complaints, the BBC’s executive complaints unit accepted that its guidelines had been breached by the programme in the August interview.

Former chancellor and energy secretary Lord Lawson had claimed that global temperatures had not risen in the past decade. And he also said that ‘extreme weather events’ had not been confirmed as on the rise.

The Corporation said the BBC was firmly convinced climate change was real and that the claims should have been challenged.

The interview sparked a slew of complaints from listeners and scientists – with some saying Lord Lawson should not be given such a platform.

One complainant, retired GP Dr Tim Thornton, likened Lord Lawson – chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation think-tank – to a ‘flat-earther’ whose views had ‘lost relevance’.

‘It’s fine that [people such as Lord Lawson] don’t like the idea of climate change but they are on a par with flatearthers,’ he wrote.

Others argued that Lord Lawson had got his facts wrong, and global temperatures had actually increased, The Guardian reported.

In a letter to Dr Thornton, the Corporation’s complaints director Colin Tregear said: ‘I hope you’ll accept my apologies, on behalf of the BBC, for the breach of editorial standards you identified.’

But whilst the Corporation’s verdict was welcomed by global warming lobbyists, they are likely to raise the hackles of sceptics who feel that their views are often sidelined.

The Radio 4 show also featured interviews with Al Gore, the former US vice-president who is a vocal advocate for tackling climate change, and Fisher Stevens, director of Before the Flood – a film about global warming.

The Today programme’s presenters also challenged Lord Lawson’s views directly the following day, when it became clear that the episode had stirred up controversy.

Lord Lawson said during an interview with Today host Justin Webb that official figures showed that ‘during this past ten years, if anything, mean global temperature, average world temperature, has slightly declined’.

He also said that the United Nations’ intergovernmental panel on climate change ‘has confirmed that there has been no increase in extreme weather events’.

Senior scientists later claimed that his information was wrong, and the Global Warming Policy Foundation had itself said that the claim about temperatures over the last decade was ‘erroneous’.

According to the Met Office, global temperatures have actually risen for the past three successive years.

It is not the first time that the Today programme has come under fire for airing the views of Lord Lawson.

The current affairs show also received a slew of complaints in 2014 for giving his opinions on climate change ‘undue weight’.

Bosses judged that the interview had ‘conveyed a misleading impression of the scientific evidence on the matter’.

‘Breach of standards’