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The BBC has issued an apology after one of its presenters failed to challenge a climate-sceptic lobbyist who runs a group that has received funding from fossil-fuel interests.

It is the first apology to be issued by the BBC since the row over a Panorama documentary on Donald Trump blew up last week, leading to the resignation of the corporation's Director General, Tim Davie, and CEO of News Deborah Turness. It has thrown the public broadcaster into chaos with threats of a $1-5billion lawsuit from President Trump.

The latest apology follows a 17th July interview by Annabel Amos on BBC Radio Northampton, where the Scottish campaigner Andrew Montford was introduced as the 'Director of the campaign group Net Zero Watch'.

Net Zero Watch is the campaign arm of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), a registered charity which does not disclose its funders and which publishes reports criticising the push to reduce carbon emissions. No explanation of its funding or allegations of denying climate science was presented by the interviewer.

The GWPF has lobbied against Government plans to reach Net Zero by 2050 and has played down the link between man made climate change and extreme weather events, stating last year that it is a "mistaken belief that weather extremes - such as heatwaves, flooding, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires - are more common and more intense today because of climate change".

The GWPF was founded by Margaret Thatcher's former Chancellor, the late Nigel Lawson, in 2009 to fight what it describes as "extremely damaging and harmful policies" designed to mitigate climate change, as climate outlet DeSmog has reported.

As Byline Times has previously reported, funders of the group have also donated significant sums to the Conservative Party, including its current leader Kemi Badenoch, who has since abandoned her party's support for Net Zero.

Conservative Baron and hedge fund billionaire Michael Hintze, who founded the asset management firm CQS (now Manulife Investment Asset Management), has given money to GWPF, alongside fellow Conservative peer Lord Moynihan.

While the GWPF says it "does not accept donations either from energy companies or from anyone with a significant interest in an energy company," the Guardian revealed in 2022 that a major donor to its US arm had $30m (£24m) of shares in 22 companies working in coal, oil and gas. Most of the cash from its US arm, American Friends of the GWPF, goes to fund its UK work. The group has said it follows all transparency laws.

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GWPF's current director Benny Peiser has previously claimed it is "extraordinary that anyone should think there is a climate crisis". The group was recently subject to a Charity Commission probe, which led to Net Zero Watch being distanced from its charity 'owner'.

However, Net Zero Watch still links to its 'friends' GWFP across its website, while its Privacy Policy suggests data is shared when people "become a member of the GWPF." The two organisations maintain the same 55 Tufton Street address.

Montford has previously said of global warming: "We don't know and I haven't seen anything credible to persuade me there's a problem" - dismissing the scientific consensus that humans are significantly contributing to the world's changing climate through burning fossil fuels.

A BBC complaint from an environmental group,...