Hacked climate emails 'timed to undermine talks'
Release Date 23 November 2011
Scientists at the University of Reading have said the release of hacked emails should not distract attention from crucial talks responding to the threat of climate change.
Their comments come after a second batch of private emails, stolen from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia in 2009, were posted on the internet.
Scientists at Reading's Walker Institute for Climate System Research, which is world renowned for its leading contribution to climate change research, said the timing of the release appeared to be deliberately aimed at undermining the reputation of the science ahead of the key international climate negotiations in Durban next week.
Professor Nigel Arnell, Director of the Walker Institute, University of Reading said: "The recent release of more excerpts from emails hacked from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit in 2009 is clearly timed to sow confusion in advance of the climate negotiations starting next week in Durban. The statement accompanying the excerpts makes it clear that those responsible for the release object to government policies to tackle climate change; they are therefore seeking to undermine the science in order to achieve their political objectives.
"The underlying science behind climate change is well established, has been documented in many peer-reviewed publications, and rigorously assessed in a series of IPCC reports. Climate science - like all branches of science - advances through scientists questioning and challenging each other over not only their conclusions but also how to present evidence. The excerpts in the published emails simply reveal parts of this process, albeit parts which rarely reach the wider public. A string of enquiries in the UK and US following the original email hack in 2009 cleared the scientists involved of any wrongdoing."
Professor Tony Downes, Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Reading, said: "The talks in Durban next week are important. They are a global recognition of the work going on around climate change and focus the attention of governments, academics and the general public on the consequences of climate change, the need to modify human behaviour, reduce harmful impacts and develop strategies for coping with the future.
"Clearly there are those who want to undermine this. We should not allow the release of stolen correspondence to distract from these discussions."
Ends
For more information, contact Pete Castle at the University of Reading press office, on 0118 378 7391 or p.castle@reading.ac.uk.
Walker Institute, University of Reading
The Walker Institute draws together a number of internationally renowned climate system research groups and centres at the University of Reading with expertise across a wide range of core disciplines central to climate system science.
Its vision is to be a world leader in integrated climate system research in order to deliver better knowledge and understanding of future climate and its impacts for the benefit of society.
Research at the Institute is improving understanding of how both natural and human induced changes are affecting climate to improve predictions of climate over coming seasons and decades.
For example, the Walker Institute is working with the Queensland government to look at floods and droughts. The flooding over eastern Australia in December 2010/January 2011 was linked to a strong cool La Nina event in the tropical Pacific. To try and understand what might happen to Australian rainfall in the future we are looking at natural variations like La Nina/El Nino as well as the effect that increasing greenhouse gases might have.
The Walker Institute has been working with Willis Re to investigate climate risk and its impact on the insurance industry and the global population it serves. Powerful high resolution climate models are being applied to understand the risks from tropical cyclones, and other weather related hazards, and to assess how risks might change in the future.