Newsnight criticised for inviting Stanley Johnson on to talk about the climate crisis

Newsnight has been heavily criticised on social media for inviting the prime minister’s dad on the show to talk about the climate crisis.

Yesterday the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a ‘code red’ for humanity, saying without rapid and large-scale action to cut down emissions, global temperatures will pass the critical 1.5-degree Celsius threshold in the next two decades.

In response to the findings, secretary general Antonio Guterres has said: “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.

“Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible.

“This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet.”

Many people were left bewildered after so-called “environmentalist” Stanley Johnson turned up on Newsnight to discuss the findings, with several people pointing to more obvious, expert, alternatives.

The reaction on social media has been fierce.

Here’s what people had to say:

Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.