Communicating climate science : eighth report of session 2013-14, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence

The Government is failing to clearly and effectively communicate climate science to the public.

There is little evidence of co-ordination amongst Government, government agencies and public bodies on communicating climate science, despite various policies at national and regional level to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The mandate to act on climate can only be maintained if the electorate are convinced that the Government is acting on the basis of strong scientific evidence.

Ministers therefore need to do more to demonstrate that is the case and consistently reflect the Government approach in all their communications, especially with the media.

The report also criticises the BBC for its reporting on the issue.

It points out that BBC News teams continue to make mistakes in their coverage of climate science by giving opinions and scientific fact the same weight. The BBC is called to develop clear editorial guidelines for all commentators and presenters on the facts of climate that should be used to challenge statements, from either side of the climate policy debate, that stray too far from the scientific facts. It is important that climate science is presented separately from any subsequent policy response.

Government should work with the learned societies and national academies to develop a source of information on climate science that is discrete from policy delivery, comprehensible to the general public and responsive to both current developments and uncertainties in the science