The BBC has spent tens of thousands of pounds over six years trying to keep secret an extraordinary ‘eco’ conference which has shaped its coverage of global warming, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The controversial seminar was run by a body set up by the BBC’s own environment analyst Roger Harrabin and funded via a £67,000 grant from the then Labour government, which hoped to see its ‘line’ on climate change and other Third World issues promoted in BBC reporting. A lobby group with close links to green campaigners, the International Broadcasting Trust (IBT), promised Ministers the seminars would influence programme content for years to come. --David Rose, Mail on Sunday, 12 January 2014
