The BBC is planning a “definitive” look at climate change in two major linked commissions across its terrestrial channels.

On BBC2, the 3 x 60-minute History of Climate Change series will ask how scientists who were convinced in the 1970s of a coming ice age can now be so sure that global warming is real.

Fronting the documentary, Dr Iain Stewart (Earth: The Power of the Planet) will present their arguments in detail, and will also look at whether global warming is the fault of man or whether it is part of a natural cycle.

The series aims to sort through “what we do know, what we don't know, what we can only speculate about and what we can never know about climate change,” a BBC spokesman said.

History of Climate Change comes in tandem with Future Earth, a 90-minute special on BBC1 which will use CGI and “lavish photography” to model the impact of three different global warming scenarios between now and 2100.

Based on rises of two, three and more degrees in temperature, the programme will show how Britain could become a holiday destination with new animals inhabiting the oceans, while the Costa del Sol could be turned into a desert.

It will also look at the technology that would be used to help cope with a temperature rise, such as vast solar power plants, magnetic trains to match aeroplanes for speed, and even a forest of artificial trees designed to extract CO2 from the atmosphere.

The commissions are part of the BBC's “reinvention” of science and history, which BBC Vision director Jana Bennett told Broadcast would result in bigger, more ambitious science projects.

The documentaries will be executive produced by Matthew Barrett and were ordered from BBC Vision Productions by in-house commissioning editor for specialist factual Martin Davidson. Both will air in the autumn. “Climate change is one of the most important subjects facing the world, but also one of the most complicated, and one where confusion has raised temperatures even faster than global CO2,” Davidson said.

“Our BBC2 series aims to steer a course through the research done over the past 30 years which we are only now beginning to understand. It's a bewildering but fascinating story, full of drama and conflict, but also breakthroughs and genuine insight.”

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