The BBC is failing to properly inform viewers about the realities of the climate emergency, choosing instead to follow the lead of rightwing newspapers owned by billionaires, Zack Polanski has said.

The BBC is failing to properly inform viewers about the realities of the climate emergency, choosing instead to follow the lead of rightwing newspapers owned by billionaires, Zack Polanski has said.

In an interview with the National newspaper, the Green party leader accused the UK’s major broadcasters of downplaying the scientific evidence outlining the imminent need to stop using fossil fuels.

“For far too long, presenting a scientist and then someone who is a climate denier was considered balance,” he said.

“It feels, in superficial terms, we’ve moved on from that now, but in many ways I don’t think we have – because we know that far too often coverage of the climate crisis has been about people on beaches having a great time in this heatwave.”

He added: “We’ve hardly heard this figure of the thousands of people who are estimated to have been killed from excess heat just in the past couple of months alone. So I think the broadcasters are failing in their duty to inform the public of the truth and of the science.”

The UK Health Security Agency estimates that heatwaves in May and June killed 2,877 people, and England is expected to see more heat-related deaths this summer than have ever been recorded before.

Polanski was speaking after the BBC opted not to report on an emergency press conference he held last week in which he said fossil fuel companies were profiting from fuelling the wildfires ravaging parts of the UK.

“It’s interesting the BBC in the past have done investigations – internal investigations – into the economy, into the way they report on migration and Brexit, and I’d really like to see them do one on the climate crisis,” he said.

He accused the public broadcaster of giving undue airtime and attention to Reform UK – whose leaders frequently push climate denialism – while giving too little to the Green party.

The BBC shapes its coverage “through the frame of what Reform are saying”, he said, adding: “There is a much bigger problem where the Telegraph or the Times or the Mail will put something on their front page and then the BBC allow those billionaire-owned newspapers to set the news agenda. It’s corrosive to our political discourse and our national conversation.”

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