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Paul Homewood’s annual review of the BBC’s climate output sets out more than 30 of the most egregious misrepresentations of the facts, with climate change spuriously blamed for everything from hot weather in Spain to rare birds in England to potholes in the roads.

Paul Homewood had a career as an accountant in industry. He has been writing on climate and energy issues since 2011.  His report titled ‘Tall Climate Tales from the BBC (2023)’ was published in August 2024 by Net Zero Watch, a campaign group that highlights the serious implications of expensive and poorly considered climate change policies in the UK and internationally. 

His report examines the BBC’s coverage of climate change over the last year and, as can be expected, found it to be one-sided, full of misinformation, and lacking in alternative views and inconvenient facts.

“We have detailed many such examples during recent years in two previous papers. This latest assessment covers the last year. It includes many examples showing how the public have been misled, but these are no doubt just the tip of the iceberg,” the report stated.

You can read the 2022 report HERE and the 2021 report HERE.

In his latest report, Homewood includes numerous examples of how the public has been misled by the BBC’s climate change coverage, which often presents normal weather events as extreme and caused by climate change. 

“One BBC report began ‘Heat. Wildfires. Torrential rain. Typhoons and hurricanes. Much of the northern hemisphere has been battered by extreme weather this summer’. There was no evidence presented that any of this was anything other than the sort of normal weather which we get every year,” Homewood wrote.  “Typhoons and hurricanes were not above normal for the year, while the Mediterranean wildfire season, which the BBC had been spreading alarm about all summer, turned out to be no worse than average either.”

The BBC’s reporting on climate change is often based on unproven claims and lacks actual data to support its assertions.  Homewood explained, “We were warned about a future without beer and bananas, and even a crocodile that bit a woman in Indonesia was, we were told, the result of climate change!”

The report also highlights the BBC’s bias in favour of renewable energy, citing an example where the BBC’s Climate Editor, Justin Rowlatt, claimed that solar and wind power are cheaper than gas generation, despite official government data showing the opposite.

“Where climate change is concerned, the BBC is now little more than a lobby group,” Homewood said.

Specific Examples of BBC’s Misinformation

Homewood’s report describes specific examples of BBC’s misinformation.  It contains links to all the offending articles as well as the resources he has used to disprove the BBC’s claims.

We have noted brief descriptions, without the hyperlinks Homewood provided, of the examples he described and reorganised them into our own subheadings.  Each paragraph is a false claim made by the BBC on separate occasions.

Table of Contents

Extreme Weather Claims

In one video, the BBC claimed that US tornadoes are getting worse due to climate change but data from the US Storm Prediction Centre shows a decline in the frequency of tornadoes.

In another report, the BBC said wildfires in Portugal were being fuelled by climate change, but temperatures in the region were not abnormally high and the area burnt by wildfires was below average.

The BBC reported on China’s summer of “climate destruction” but conflated weather with climate. “It’s a common con trick used by the BBC, to conflate weather with climate” Homewood said. And “the BBC’s claim of the number of floods increasing in China was debunked in their own report by Dr Zhao Li from Greenpeace East Asia.”

The BBC’s weathergirl, Louise Lear, falsely claimed that there is evidence that hurricanes are getting more powerful, when in fact, this is not supported by the data.  The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest report found no evidence that Atlantic hurricanes are becoming more frequent or powerful, contradicting claims often made by the BBC.

The BBC reported that Tropical Storm Hilary, which hit California in August 2023, was “record-breaking” and made worse by climate change, but this claim was disputed as another tropical storm, El Cordonazo, hit the same area in 1939, and Hurricane Kathleen in 1976 brought more rain and caused greater flooding.

Chris Fawkes, BBC’s weatherman, claimed that half the annual rainfall in the Bologna region of Italy fell in 36 hours, leading to catastrophic floods, but this claim was later admitted to be false.

The BBC reported that Scotland’s climate is changing faster than expected, citing rising temperatures and unprecedented storms, but these claims were disputed as average February temperatures in Scotland are around 3°C, and 100-mph winds are not unusual in the country.

The BBC reported that the Amazon rainforest experienced its worst drought on record in 2023, but data shows that average rainfall in the region has been increasing since 1960.

The BBC exaggerated the impact of Storm Henk, which brought typical winter gales to the UK but was reported as causing huge damage with winds of over 90 mph.  Homewood noted that the BBC’s report on Storm Henk was misleading, as the 90 mph winds were only recorded at The Needles, a cliff top location that is not representative of the rest of the UK, and other locations experienced much lower wind speeds.

The BBC blamed climate change for the severity of wildfires around the Mediterranean in the summer of 2023, but EU data showed that the area burnt was not unusual and has actually been declining since the 1980s.

Chaos for Nature Claims

The BBC attributed the spread of mosquito-borne diseases in Europe to climate change but experts from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control say it is actually due to the explosion in international trade.

The BBC attributed the appearance of the black-winged stilt in Britain to climate change but the bird has been spotted in Britain for hundreds of years, with a recorded sighting dating back to 1684.

The BBC has also exaggerated the impact of climate change on coastal erosion at Happisburgh, Norfolk, when in fact, the erosion has been occurring for thousands of years at a steady rate.

The BBC’s ‘Planet Earth 3’, presented by Sir David Attenborough, featured scenes of animals struggling due to climate change but experts pointed out that the species featured were actually thriving.

[Related: David Attenborough isn’t a knight in shining armour; he’s a salesman peddling depopulation dressed up as climate change]

“A common tactic used by the BBC is to give credence to any study that shows climate change in a bad light. At the end of last year, they reported on the National Trust’s‘Weather and Wildlife 2023 Review’,” Homewood said.  The BBC reported, “The loss of predictable weather patterns is ‘causing chaos’ for nature, according to the National Trust.“  “As usual, the BBC did not attempt to challenge any of the assertions in the review, nor bother to do any fact-checking. In particular, their claim that we used to have ‘predictable weather patterns’ is utterly ridiculous. As was the National Trust’s claim that there had been significant changes in our seasonal climate in the last decade,” Homewood said.

The BBC has also been spreading misinformation by claiming that coral bleaching is a result of human-induced climate change, when in fact it is a natural process where coral expels algae to adapt to new conditions.  Coral scientists have stated that coral is doing fine, contradicting the BBC’s claims of coral dying out around the world.

“Fossil Fuel” and Renewable Energy Claims

“A common way for the BBC to promote their climate change agenda is to fill their articles with comments by like-minded ‘experts’,” Homewood said. The BBC did this in an article in response to the then Prime Minister that the UK needed to build a few new gas-fired power plants to provide electricity on days when wind and solar power did not deliver.  Instead of including comments from energy experts, the BBC “filled the page with critical comments from the Green Alliance, the Energy and Climate Information Unit, Ed Miliband, the Lib Dems and Greenpeace.  None of them were asked how they would avoid blackouts in such circumstances,” Homewood wrote.

The BBC’s Verify team wrote a hit piece on a young Kenyan farmer who campaigned for Africa to have full access to fossil fuels, labelling him a “climate denier,” revealing the BBC’s bias towards climate change as a religion rather than a topic to be reported on.

[Related: Message from an African small-scale farmer to COP28: “Africa needs fossil fuels”]

The BBC’s Climate Editor, Justin Rowlatt, falsely claimed that the cost of power from new solar or wind projects is lower than from new gas generators, when in fact electricity from wind and solar farms is much more expensive than gas power, according to the Government’s own Strike Prices.

Heatwave Claims

The BBC reported Beijing’s hottest day on record in June 2023 even though it was only a tiny 0.5°C hotter than in 1961.  And it failed to mention the Urban Heat Island effect, which can make cities four or five degrees hotter than rural areas due to urbanisation.

The BBC’s Climate Editor, Justin Rowlatt, reported on the heat in Spain but did not mention that temperatures of 36°C are normal in that region. Unsurprisingly, “What Rowlatt’s sister Cordelia, an Insulate Britain activist, thought of her brother’s gas-guzzling flight was not reported!” Homewood said.

The BBC’s article on the extreme summer weather that “scorched and soaked the world” also presented a misleading narrative.  “As usual with the BBC, no actual data was proffered to support their claims,” Homewood said. “On the contrary, the data confirmed that none of the events they wrote about were anything other than the sort of weather we see every year.”

The BBC’s weatherman, Simon King, falsely claimed that last year’s heatwave in Texas was record-breaking and used it as an example of how extreme weather could affect the 2026 FIFA World Cup, when in fact, temperatures had been even higher in Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami during the 1994 World Cup.

A BBC report on the 2022 UK heatwave claimed that it killed over 4,500 people but failed to mention that according to the Office for National Statistics (“ONS”), the deaths were merely a short-term displacement and the number of deaths over the summer as a whole was no higher than usual.

In March 2024, the BBC reported on a heatwave in South Sudan, claiming it was exceptionally early but failed to note that March is actually the hottest month of the year in the region and temperatures of 41°C are common.

The BBC also claimed that Mali never had heatwaves before human-induced climate change, despite the country being one of the hottest in the world, with temperatures reaching 43°C in the capital Bamako.

The BBC reported on an “unprecedented heatwave” in Delhi in June 2023, where temperatures over 40°C persisted since the end of May, but failed to mention that such temperatures are normal in Delhi at that time of year.

The BBC also claimed that a heatwave in the US South West in late May/early June was made 35 times more likely due to climate change, despite the temperatures recorded being perfectly normal for the time of year.

In Phoenix, Arizona, temperatures during the heatwave reached 113°F, which is well below the record of 122°F for June set in 1990.

Claims That Make You Want To Laugh

In one of its most farcical claims about climate change, the BBC was blaming a drought in Indonesia for a crocodile attack on a woman, when in fact, droughts in the region are driven by natural cycles and there is no evidence that last year’s drought was any worse than normal.

And the BBC wasn’t going to let a pothole crisis go to waste either.  “According to the BBC, reports of potholes reached a 5-year high in 2023, and naturally it was all because of climate change,” Homewood wrote.  The BBC cited a report by Roger Harding, the director of the climate change campaigning organisation ‘Round Our Way’.  Meanwhile, another BBC report on the same day revealed that potholes are actually caused by a lack of cash for repairs and water freezing in road cracks.

In another shocking display of misinformation, the BBC’s Environment Correspondent, Matt McGrath, reported that climate change would make bananas more expensive, despite the world output of bananas having risen sixfold since the 1960s.

The BBC warned that climate change threatens the British beer industry, claiming it will soon be too hot to grow hops in Kent, but this claim is disputed by hop growers in warmer climates in Central Europe.

The BBC claimed that global warming is making flight turbulence worse but this claim is based on worthless computer modelling, and a US National Transportation Safety Board study found no increase in severe turbulence accidents since 1989.

Claims That Make You Want To Cry

The BBC has also misrepresented facts and blamed climate change for various tragic incidents, including the Stonehaven train crash, which was actually caused by the incorrect installation of a drainage system and lack of proper inspection by Network Rail.

Four years ago, three people sadly lost their lives when a train to Aberdeen crashed into a landslide following heavy rain. Last September, the High Court in Aberdeen found that the landslide had been caused by the incorrect installation of a drainage system, exacerbated by the lack of proper inspection by Network Rail, who were fined £6.7m for their failures. Nevertheless, in another article on the same day, the BBC were still determined to lay the blame for the accident on climate change.

‘Tall Climate Tales from the BBC (2023)’ by Paul Homewood, Net Zero Watch, 14 August 2024

Conclusion

Homewood concluded his report as he had concluded his previous report:

The sheer weight of evidence presented in this paper suggests that bias is now endemic in the BBC’s climate reporting.

All of the factual errors noted could easily have been avoided with a bit of basic research. Is this carried out and the results ignored if they don’t agree with the BBC’s agenda? Or is the corporation’s output just made up and printed anyway without checks? Either way, this is journalism at its shoddy worst.

And who is editing this fake reporting? Why are they not insisting on accurate reporting? Where are the highly-paid executives, who let all of this continue?

You can read the ‘Tall Climate Tales from the BBC (2023)’ report HERE.  It’s surprisingly light reading and it is far shorter than the 7-8 pages of text seems due to the layout and inclusion of graphs.