found December 7, 2009 at timesonline.co.uk
The 'Climategate' row immediately took centre stage at the Copenhagen climate summit today when one of the opening speakers went out of his way to defend the scientific consensus on global warming from the attacks of climate change sceptics.
Some 15,000 delegates from 192 nations are gathering in Copenhagen for two weeks of negotiations on an agreement that would succeed the Kyoto Protocol and go far beyond it in scope. The political deal reached here could bring deep cuts in CO2 emissions from industrialised nations and a "cap-and-trade" programme which could see hundreds of billions of dollars paid to the developing world.
But the smooth run-up to the conference has been upset by a row over the publication of about a thousand e-mails sent by and to the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia which appear to suggest a deliberate attempt to skew the science of global warming.
In his opening address to the conference, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), mounted a passionate defence of the organisation's integrity and and objectivity in the face of the Climategate assault.
That he mentioned the e-mails at all betrayed policymakers' deep fears that the momentum is slipping away from them at the worst possible time.
Dr Pachauri told delegates that the science as outlined in the IPCC's fourth assessment report in 2007 - which warned of rising sea levels, water shortages and the disappearance of sea ice - was incontrovertible.
"Given the wide-ranging nature of change that is likely to be taken in hand, some naturally find it inconvenient to accept its inevitability," Dr Pachauri said, echoing a phrase from the former US Vice-President Al Gore, with whom he shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
"The recent incident of stealing the emails of scientists at the University of East Anglia shows that some would go to the extent of carrying out illegal acts, perhaps in an attempt to discredit the IPCC.
"But the Panel has a record of transparent and objective assessment stretching over 21 years performed by tens of thousands of dedicated scientists from all corners of the globe."
He went on: "The internal consistency from multiple lines of evidence strongly supports the work of the scientific community, including those individuals singled out in these e-mail exchanges, many of whom have dedicated their time and effort to develop these findings."
The climate summit opened with welcoming speeches from the Danish Prime Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, and Ritt Bjerregaard, the Mayor of Copenhagen.
Mr Rasmussen said that 110 world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, would join the conference as it attempt to seal a deal next Friday after two weeks of haggling.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the world is depositing hope with you for a short while in the history of mankind," he said.
The first week of the conference will be focused on refining the complex text of a draft treaty. But major decisions will await the arrival next week of ministers and the heads of state and government in the final days of the summit.
Among those decisions is a proposed fund of $10 billion each year for the next three years to help poor countries prepare climate change strategies - effectively buying their acceptance of a deal. After that, hundreds of billions of dollars would be needed every year to help limit global temperature rise to a target of 2C.
A study released yesterday by the UN Environment Programme indicated that pledges by industrial countries and major emerging nations fall just short of the reductions of greenhouse gas emissions that scientists have said are needed.
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