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TELL OFCOM: The climate crisis is not a hoax

Watch: GB News host Neil Oliver describes the climate crisis as a “scam”, “the biggest hoax” and calls the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals “a suicide note half the population of the planet”.

On 21 July 2024, GB News host Neil Oliver, who has previously referred to COVID-19 as a “scamdemic” on GB News, made several incorrect and conspiratorial claims about the climate, including referring to the climate crisis as a “scam” and a “hoax”.

These highly contestible claims breach Ofcom rules requiring “due accuracy” (rule 5.1) and the avoidance of misrepresenting facts and views (rule 5.7). Submit your complaint to Ofcom using this form and by following the guidance below.

Programme details:

Programme title: The Neil Oliver Show
Date of broadcast: 31 July 2024
Time of broadcast (24 hour clock): 18:39
Channel / station*: GB News

Your complaint:

Subject: GB News host Neil Oliver, who has previously referred to COVID-19 as the “scamdemic”, labelled the climate crisis as “the biggest hoax” and labelled Agenda 2030 as “a suicide note”. Oliver’s climate denialism is a breach of Ofcom rules 5.1 and 5.7.

Description:

Here’s a few bullet points to include:

  • On 21 July 2024, GB News host Neil Oliver engaged in climate denial and minimisation, while also spreading unproven allegations about Agenda 2030 posing a risk to “half the population of the planet”.
  • He claimed that “the climate crisis so-called is a scam”, that Net Zero is “maximising profit for the usual suspects”, that Agenda 2030 is “a suicide note for half the population of the planet” and finally that “the so-called climate crisis is the biggest hoax yet foisted upon the human species on this planet”. Oliver made these claims in direct challenge to the CEO of a climate solutions company, who backed up all of his claims with established science such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Oliver however did not support any of his claims with proof, and so he was allowed to label the climate crisis a “hoax”. The labelling of the UN’s Agenda 2030 of Sustainable Development goals as a “suicide note for half the population of the planet” was also allowed to go unchallenged.
  • This is the latest in a series of false, sweeping and conspiratorial claims made by Oliver which breach Ofcom rules requiring “due accuracy” (rule 5.1) and the avoidance of misrepresenting facts and views (rule 5.7).
Deadline for complaints: August 16, 2024 11:59 pm

Submitting a complaint to Ofcom should take you less than 10 minutes and is completed via a form on their website.

Go straight to OFCOM
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Submitting a complaint to Ofcom should take you less than 10 minutes and is completed via a form on their website.

  • Ofcom is the UK’s public regulator for communications services. Among other responsibilities, their job is to ensure that TV channels uphold the Broadcasting Code. This code requires broadcasters to protect the public from harmful and offensive material, avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals and organisations, and report the news with due accuracy and impartiality.
  • Ofcom has real power to yield. Sanctions they can issue include directions not to repeat content, fines — and crucially, the power to suspend or revoke a TV channel’s licence to broadcast.
  • Ofcom must carefully consider every single complaint to see if their rules have been broken. If the complaint is strong, Ofcom will launch a formal investigation process.
  • Ofcom will not reply to each specific complaint but instead publishes records of the complaints received, investigations underway and breaches on their website, every fortnight.
  • Complaints must be about a specific breach of the code and submitted within 20 days of the program going to air.