TELL OFCOM: Stop this straight up science denial on GB News

Watch: GB News guest directly contradicts the scientific evidence on climate change — stating that there’s “no actual evidence” of the need to decarbonise electricity. 

On 15 June 2024, a guest appeared who has been labeled by the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment as “not an expert on climate change”, appeared on GB News and made a range of claims denying climate science when discussing the Labour Party’s manifesto pledge for zero carbon electricity.

In doing so, the guest made claims that are unscientific and misleading, in breach of Ofcom rule 5.7. When faced with these inaccurate claims, host Nana Akua failed to offer any degree of due impartiality, which violated rule 5.1. Submit your complaint to Ofcom using this form and by following the guidance below. 

Programme details:

Programme title: Nana Akua show
Date of broadcast: 15 June 2024
Time of broadcast (24 hour clock): 15:24
Channel / station*: GB News

Your complaint:

Subject: GB News’ Nana Akua show did not comply with Ofcom rules 5.1 and 5.7 by sharing unscientific and misleading claims about human-made climate change, and failing to provide proper balance to scientific evidence provided by a climate expert on the show.

Description:

Here’s a few bullet points to include:

• Brian Catt (referred to as a “physicist and engineer”) appeared on Nana Akua’s show on GB News to discuss the Labour Party’s manifesto pledge for zero carbon electricity. Catt claimed that “All of this is predicated on the idea that we have to decarbonise” and that “there’s no actual evidence that that’s been necessary”.
• According to Catt, “since 1979, we’ve been checking the change and comparing it with the forecast of the UN models, which all this is based on. And it just doesn’t happen as advertised. We’re still two degrees colder than we were in Egyptian/Roman times. And only a degree and a half over the coldest in 10,000 years. So basically what we’re doing is we’re planning to create a rolling eco-economic disaster for everybody. It’s going to cost a fortune, literally tens of billions of pounds a year to try to solve a problem which nobody has yet measured”. These claims are not challenged by the host..
• Brian Catt, as noted by the London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, is “not an expert on climate change”, has no apparent professional expertise in climate science, “has never had a scientific paper about the issue published in a scientific journal”. As such, he is an unsuitable figure to debate climate policy.
• Catt’s claims are unscientific and misleading, in breach of Ofcom rule 5.7. When faced with these inaccurate claims, host Nana Akua failed to offer any degree of due impartiality, which violated rule 5.1.