People tackling the floods of Cyclone Nisha. Photo by Ranveig. Some rights reserved.In December of last year, climate change, the perpetual poor relation in the battle for media headlines, made the top item as a historic global deal was struck at the UN COP 21 summit – representing an unusual convergence of political, scientific and journalistic priorities. But if the scientific community, NGOs and activists hoped the summit would be a breakthrough, less than a year later, it looks more like a climax. The scientific evidence increasingly consolidates with new records on greenhouse gas concentration, global temperatures, warming oceans and shrinking Arctic sea ice. Talk of a climate emergency is no longer hyperbole as scientists warn that the COP 21 aim to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees pre-industrial level is now moving out of the world’s grasp. But climate change has slid off the UK’s media agenda.
It’s perhaps predictable that, in a 24-hour news, celebrity –centred, social media culture, attention moves on fast from stories with a complex and often slow-moving science at their core. But expectations of the BBC – the nation’s most trusted broadcaster – are significantly different. Its news journalism and factual programming, across TV, radio and online, are heralded globally – President Obama was raised on the documentaries of David Attenborough. Its public remit includes the promotion of education and learning and the BBC defines its own personnel as ‘stewards for the next generation’. The communication of the single greatest challenge facing this and every generation should have been the BBC’s to own. But that hasn’t happened – and, in many ways, the coverage is emblematic of the broader crisis in the corporation.
A closer look at the BBC’s extensive coverage of COP21 – and how fast it dropped off after Paris – gives some indication of the problem. As global leaders lined up to espouse the monumental importance of the task ahead, the BBC dutifully reported the then PM’s opening speech calling for no more excuses with headlines like ‘Climate change action is doable, says Cameron’. The context was his leadership of a government which reduced subsidies on renewables, relentlessly pursued shale gas extraction and actively downgraded climate change as an issue. The hypocrisy of the speech, and the wider failure of the Cameron government on climate policy, raised discussion around the margins of the broadcast headlines. But reporting of the urgency of the government’s mitigation efforts in response to the Paris deal fell away once the speeches stopped.
