BBC Climate Editor back home… from 1,800-MILE Spain jaunt by plane – where he blamed heatwave on carbon emissions here
- Justin Rowlatt, 57, made the 1,800 mile round trip to Spain by plane for report
- Return flight will have produced an estimated 0.32 tons of carbon emissions
- Conservative MP Sir John Hayes said: ‘You can’t fly if you are a climate zealot’
The BBC was accused of hypocrisy after its Climate Editor jetted off to Spain to report on its heatwave – which he blamed on carbon emissions.
The Corporation repeatedly refused to say if Justin Rowlatt, 57, had made the 1,800 mile round trip to Spain by plane.
But our exclusive picture shows the moment he arrived back at his £2.8 million north London home on Thursday afternoon – with Iberia Airlines bag tags attached to his backpack.
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay accused the BBC of ‘sheer hypocrisy’.
He added: ‘If they’re so convinced this is all to do with global warming, surely they could have used reporters already in Spain to do the job rather than clocking up more air miles, which supposedly just adds to the problem.’
The BBC was accused of hypocrisy after its Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt jetted off to Spain to report on its heatwave – which he blamed on carbon emissions
Justin Rowlatt said during his report from Spain: ‘Unless we begin to reduce our use of fossil fuels quickly, we simply aren’t tackling the real problem.’
Mr Rowlatt reported for News at Ten from a Spanish beach as temperatures across the south of Europe soared above 40C.
BEEB HAS NINE ECO-JOURNALISTS
The BBC has at least nine full-time climate journalists, who report exclusively about climate change, global warming and the environment.
Climate and Science reporter Georgina Rannard joined after a PhD in global history, focusing on ‘economic impact of British imperialism and America’.
In 2015, she became a senior fellow for ‘social justice’ charity Humanity in Action.
As a teenager, she tried to convert her family to vegetarianism and now often uses her BBC role to encourage youngsters to get their parents to stop using planes and become vegetarian.
The BBC has two ‘climate disinformation journalists’ Marco Silva and Merlyn Thomas, who was previously an interpreter for a refugee charity.
He warned breathlessly of the need to cut carbon emissions to stop climate change, adding: ‘Unless we begin to reduce our use of fossil fuels quickly, we simply aren’t tackling the real problem.’
Yet it is understood he then boarded a plane at Alicante airport on Thursday morning.
He arrived home in London at 2pm – hours after reporting for the BBC in Spain.
The return flight will have produced an estimated 0.32 tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to driving 1,550 miles in a petrol car.
Conservative MP Sir John Hayes said: ‘You can’t fly if you are going to be a climate zealot.
‘But now we have the BBC Climate Editor jet-setting to Spain to tell us that we should not be jetting anywhere because it is too hot because of emissions.’
The Mail on Sunday can also reveal that the corporation flew senior BBC journalist Azadeh Moshiri from London to report from Greece.
A round trip from London to Athens emits 0.73 tons of Co2–- equivalent to driving 2,700 miles in a typical petrol car.
The Corporation also put its Italian correspondent Sofia Bettiza on a flight from Rome to Sicily to report on the hot weather.
Tory former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘I don’t think it was necessary for the BBC to fly their reporters to Europe.
‘There is plenty of video available from other broadcasters that they could have used.
‘It’s ironic, really, when they are the same people complaining about emissions. In fact, flying them over makes me wonder if they were campaigning, rather than reporting.’
Last night the BBC again refused to admit that its reporters took fossil fuel-guzzling flights to cover the European heatwave.
Despite repeated questions from this newspaper, the broadcaster declined to say how its reporters travelled to Europe.
In a statement, a BBC spokesperson said: ‘The extreme heat millions of people are experiencing in several parts of the world is a significant story relating to climate change.
‘Our journalists are providing additional insight and analysis on the ground from some of the hardest hit regions.’
Mr Rowlatt, a former Newsnight, Channel 4 and Panorama reporter, was appointed the BBC’s first
Climate Editor in September 2021, ahead of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.
His reporting on environmental issues began at Newsnight, when in 2006 he gave up flying for a year to reduce his family’s carbon footprint. However, he appears to have since returned to air travel.
His profile on the BBC News website states that he ‘has travelled all over the world for the BBC’ and that he believes climate change ‘is the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced’.
Three months ago he travelled to the Swiss Alps to reveal melting ice caps. Six months earlier he reported from Egypt on the United Nations climate change conference.
Ironically, his Twitter cover photo depicts the young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who refuses to fly because of carbon emissions and once sailed from Plymouth to
New York to attend a UN climate change meeting.
Critics accused Mr Rowlatt of being more of an eco-campaigner than an objective reporter.
His wife Bee, a former producer for the BBC World Service, has attended Extinction Rebellion protests in the past.
His sister Cordelia was fined for taking part in an Insulate Britain protest which blocked the M25 two years ago.
Last year, the BBC upheld complaints about two claims made by Mr Rowlatt in a Panorama programme called Wild Weather: Our World Under Threat.
The BBC’s complaints unit found he had falsely said the death toll from natural disasters was rising and that southern Madagascar, off the south-east coast of Africa, was ‘on the brink of the world’s first climate-induced famine’.
Source: Read Full Article
