Letter to BBC Panorama

We’re grateful to Justin Rowlatt and the team for a great job joining dots between the floods, fires and heatwaves - and the climate crisis driving them.

But the episode framed a false choice between tackling climate change and addressing the cost of living or protecting our national security. That’s not what the evidence says. Climate impacts and our reliance on gas are major drivers of the high cost of living, and things will only get worse without much bolder action.

At times it felt as though political sensitivities were shaping the editorial choices, when only the evidence should.

Viewers were left with the final thought that the UK can’t move faster without damaging the economy or harming national security. Abundant expert evidence to the contrary was not offered. We set it out in our letter: https://files.nebriefing.org/NEB-Panorama-Complaint-Letter.pdf

If you feel the same, please consider submitting your own complaint to the BBC:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints/make-a-complaint/#/Complaint%20Summary

People can only support action at the scale needed, and prepare for what’s coming, if they understand the risks. A lack of effective communication from successive governments has left a vacuum, and disinformation is rushing to fill it.

This makes the BBC’s role as a trusted source all the more important.