The BBC Trust yesterday upheld a complaint made against a Panorama programme about open cast mining.

A sequence in ‘Comeback Coal’, broadcast on BBC1 in December, paired commentary on carbon dioxide emissions from coal fired power stations with pictures of cooling towers.

Shots of water vapour billowing from cooling towers were shown as a voiceover stated that burning fossil fuels, particularly coal, was responsible for up to 80 per cent of the global rise in carbon dioxide emissions.