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Weather groups around the world have agreed to collect more
precise temperature data to try to improve climate change
science.
The British Met
Office proposed that scientists around the world undertake
the “grand challenge” of measuring land surface temperatures
as often as several times a day and allow independent scrutiny
of the data. The move would go some way toward answering demands
by sceptics for access to the raw figures used to predict
climate change.
“This effort will ensure that the datasets are completely
robust and that all methods are transparent,” the Met Office
said. It added that “any such analysis does not undermine
the existing independent datasets that all reflect a warming
trend.”
The proposal was approved in principle by some 150 delegates
meeting under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organisation
(WMO)
in Antalya, Turkey.
It comes after emails stolen from a British university and
several mistakes made in a 2007 report issued by the UN-affiliated
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prompted public
debate over the reliability of climate change predictions.
Sceptics claim scientists have secretly manipulated climate
data and suppressed contrary views - allegations that have
been denied by researchers and the climate change panel.
However, the Met Office said current measurements were “fundamentally
ill-conditioned to answer 21st-century questions such as how
extremes are changing and, therefore, what adaptation and
mitigation decisions should be taken”.
Meanwhile UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged environment
ministers meeting in Bali to reject attempts by sceptics to
undermine efforts to forge a climate change deal, saying global
warming poses “a clear and present danger.”
Mr Ban referred to the controversy over the 2007 climate
panel report that drew widespread criticism and calls for
the panel’s chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, to resign. The report’s
conclusion that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 turned
out to be incorrect - an error that bolstered arguments from
climate sceptics that fears of global warming are overblown.
The UN conference in Copenhagen in December failed to achieve
a binding deal on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. However,
Ban Ki-moon said it was important that the conference set
a target of keeping keep global temperatures from rising and
established a programme of climate aid to poorer nations.
“To maintain the momentum, I urge you to reject last-ditch
attempts by climate sceptics to derail your negotiations by
exaggerating shortcomings in the report,” Ban said at the
start of an annual UN meeting of environmental officials from
130 countries on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
“Tell the world that you unanimously agree that climate
change is a clear and present danger,” he said.
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