LONDON: The United Nations will conduct its own investigation into e-mails leaked from a leading British climate science center in addition to the probe by the University of East Anglia, a senior UN climate official said Friday.
E-mails stolen from the
Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia appeared to show some of world’s leading scientists discussing ways to shield data from public scrutiny and suppress others’ work. Those who deny the influence of man-made climate change have seized on the correspondence to argue that scientists have been conspiring to hide evidence about global warming.
In an interview with BBC radio, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pachauri, said the issue raised by the e-mails was serious and said “we will look into it in detail,” “We will certainly go into the whole lot and then we will take a position on it,” he said. “We certainly don’t want to brush anything under the carpet.” The University of East Anglia has defended the integrity of the science published by the climate unit and its researchers, but on Thursday said it would investigate whether some of the data had been fudged.
Phil Jones, the director of the unit, stepped down Tuesday pending the result of the investigation.
East Anglia said its review will examine the e-mails and other information “to determine whether there is any evidence of the manipulation or suppression of data which is at odds with acceptable scientific practice.” The theft of the e-mails and their publication online — only weeks before the UN summit on global warming — has been politically explosive, even if researchers say their content has no bearing on the principles of climate change itself.
