The BBC has scrapped plans for Planet Relief, a TV special on climate change, the BBC News website has learned.

The decision comes after some senior executives expressed concern that the programme concept might breach impartiality guidelines.

Celebrities such as Ricky Gervais were said to be interested in presenting the show, which would have involved viewers in a mass “switch-off” to save energy.

Environmental campaigners slammed the decision as “cowardice”.

“This decision shows a real poverty of understanding among senior BBC executives about the gravity of the situation we face,” said activist and writer Mark Lynas.

“The only reason why this became an issue is that there is a small but vociferous group of climate ‘sceptics’ lobbying against taking action, so the BBC is behaving like a coward and refusing to take a more consistent stance.”

There has as yet been no official comment from the BBC.

The Planet Relief concept originated about 18 months ago, and was tentatively scheduled for broadcast in January 2008. It was seen as a climate change counterpart to programmes such as Live8 which sought to raise awareness of global poverty.

But against the backdrop of intense internal debates about impartiality, senior news editors expressed misgivings that Planet Relief was too “campaigning” in nature and would have left the Corporation open to the charge of bias.

“It is absolutely not the BBC’s job to save the planet,” warned Newsnight editor Peter Barron at the Edinburgh Festival last month.

Head of TV news Peter Horrocks, writing in the BBC News website’s editors’ blog, commented: “It is not the BBC’s job to lead opinion or proselytise on this or any other subject.”

A number of right-wing commentators such as the Daily Mail’s Keith Waterhouse also criticised the idea.

Meanwhile, poor ratings in the UK and elsewhere for July’s Live Earth concert fuelled the internal belief that the public do not like being “lectured to” on climate change.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6979596.stm