Conservative candidates debate about climate crisis for just two minutes

British broadcasters grilled conservative candidates for just two minutes on the climate crisis in recent debates, despite wildfires spreading across the country just last week.

Open Democracy reported that BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and GB News didn’t ask foreign secretary Liz Truss any questions about the climate crisis.

LBC’s Andrew Marr asked two questions about the climate emergency, dedicating two minutes of a half an hour show to the crucial topic.

Viewers of last night’s BBC debate were left disappointed by presenter Sophie Raworth’s handling of the climate crisis, as she asked Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss: ‘What three things should people change in their lives to help tackle climate change faster?’

People pointed out that this question was centered around personal responsibility and said little about the candidates own policies to act on the crisis.

Scottish Green MSP, Ross Greer, reacted to the questioning on Twitter, writing: ‘The irony here is the “individual lifestyle” framing of that question is a perfect example of the success of lobbyists hired by fossil fuel corporations to prevent climate action, as the BBC just reported on.

‘So glad the breakdown of our planetary life support system got a whole two minutes based on a premise originally written by literal fossil fuel lobbyists #BBCOurNextPM.’

The Labour party’s Ed Miliband has accused Tory leadership rivals of ‘running away’ from climate issues, telling the BBC their proposed tax and energy policies showed they were not ‘serious about the situation.’

In her interview with BBC Radio 4, Liz Truss listed inflation and Putin as crises the UK was facing but failed to mention the climate emergency.

She also proposed to scrap the ‘green levy’, which funds decarbonisation projects, and to increase North Sea oil and gas extraction, which received little scrutiny on the show.

On the other hand, LBC’s Andrew Marr show spoke about the climate crisis in his introduction to his interview with Rishi Sunak, but later asked if Sunak agreed with the basic science, rather than directly asking about his policies to tackle the problem.

‘When you saw those images yesterday of burning houses, did you think, this is being caused by climate change?’ Marr asked, followed by: ‘So you really believe in it?’

He then went on to ask Mr Sunak if he supported onshore windfarms, to which the former chancellor said he did not.

Photo by Issy Bailey