Greenpeace anti-fracking advert banned for claiming support of 'experts'

The national press ad said: 'Fracking threatens our climate, our countryside and our water. Yet experts agree – it won’t cut our energy bills'

Engineers on the drilling platform of a Cuadrilla shale fracking facility in Preston, Lancashire, in 2012 (Getty Images)

A Greenpeace advert opposing fracking has been banned for claiming experts agreed that the process would not cut energy bills.

The national press ad said: “Fracking threatens our climate, our countryside and our water. Yet experts agree – it won’t cut our energy bills.”

The Labour peer Lord Lipsey, who said he understood there was a range of views on the subject, complained that the ad was misleading for claiming experts were in agreement.

Greenpeace said the claim was made in the context of a public debate on Government policy, and cited quotes from David Cameron, who has repeatedly backed fracking and claimed that it could bring down energy bills.

The organisation provided quotes from 22 people, groups or organisations supporting the view that fracking would not reduce energy prices.

The Advertising Standards Authority said: “While we acknowledged that Greenpeace had provided quotes from 22 people, groups or organisations demonstrating support for the view that fracking would not reduce energy prices, we understood that there was a significant division of ... opinion on the issue.

“We considered the claim was absolute in nature and therefore implied the statement was accepted among informed opinion, which we understood was not the case.”