'Climategate' inquiry clears scientists of malpractice
"Climategate" caused public outrage and fuelled climate change sceptics for months.
Wednesday, 14, Apr 2010 05:22
By Ciara Trudeau.
Scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) have been cleared of scientific malpractice, following accusations during the "Climategate" affair.
An independent panel chaired by Lord Oxburgh released its findings today after investigating 20 years of CRU's academic research.
Following a detailed review of 11 scientific papers, he found "absolutely no evidence of any impropriety whatsoever".
The "Climategate" affair began in November when hundreds of leaked emails from CRU scientists were published online.
One email referred to a "trick" to "hide the decline" in global temperatures, leading to accusations that scientists were willing to manipulate data to exaggerate the extent of global warming.
The incident caused public outrage and fuelled climate change sceptics for months. It also cast a shadow over the United Nation's climate change summit in Copenhagen, widely seen as the most important meeting to address global warming in years.
A recent House of Commons science and technology committee report into the emails concluded that the scientists involved had no intention to deceive. But it criticised UEA authorities for failing to respond to information requests from climate change sceptics.
Lord Oxburgh said that he hoped these further "resounding affirmations" of the unit's scientific credibility would end months of suspicion and condemnation.
"We found absolutely no evidence of any impropriety whatsoever. That doesn't mean that we agreed with all of their conclusions, but scientists were doing their jobs honestly," he said.
The report recommends that researchers work more closely with professional statisticians when analysing "messy" data in the future.
"We cannot help remarking that it is very surprising that research in an area that depends so heavily on statistical methods has not been carried out in close collaboration with professional statisticians," the report states.
Lord Oxburgh said any exaggeration of the extent of global warming occurred when CRU data was interpreted by organisations, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN body which advises governments around the world.
The university's vice chancellor Edward Acton welcomed the report: "It is especially important that, despite a deluge of allegations and smears against the CRU, this independent group of utterly reputable scientists have concluded that there was no evidence of any scientific malpractice.
He added: "This has been a horrendous experience for Phil Jones [the former head of the CRU] and a turbulent time for CRU. We have had months of vilification against our most precious asset of scientific integrity which, as this report confirms yet again, was totally unjustified."
Critics have questioned the panel's independence as Lord Oxburgh is president of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association and chairman of wind energy firm Falck Renewables, both of which would benefit from policies to tackle climate change. Lord Oxburgh insists the panel approached their task objectively.