A lack of scrutiny in an interview with climate sceptic Lord Lawson has led the BBC to admit it breached its “guidelines on accuracy and impartiality”. The sceptic ex-chancellor claimed in an interview with the Today programme that “official figures” showed average world temperatures had “slightly declined”. This view was shown to be false, but was not challenged on air.

During the interview, Lord Lawson said “official figures” showed that “during this past 10 years, if anything… average world temperature has slightly declined”.

He also claimed the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had confirmed there had not been an increase in extreme weather events for the last 10 years.

Dr Peter Stott, of the Met Office, came on the programme the following day to confirm that Lord Lawson’s statistics, which he did not cite at the time, were incorrect.

Dr Stott also said the IPCC has clearly indicated an increase in extreme weather events across the globe were linked to human use of fossil fuels.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation, a campaign group chaired by Lord Lawson, later confirmed his statistics were “erroneous”.

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