A British parliamentary inquiry into a scandal that engulfed one of the world’s leading climate research centers yesterday sided with the scientists accused over the controversy.
Lawmakers found researchers at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (CRU), headed by Phil Jones, acted in line with normal practices when they refused data requests and did not seek to mislead. The House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee did, however, urge climate change scientists to routinely make more information available to the public in a bid to prevent future controversies.
Jones — who has stepped aside as director of the unit while investigations take place — came under fire after more than 1,000 e-mails were hacked from the university’s server and posted online.
Skeptics claimed the messages showed evidence scientists were trying to exaggerate the case for global warming in the run-up to December’s UN climate talks aimed at striking a new accord to tackle climate change. But the investigation into the disclosure of data, the first of several inquiries into the controversy here, judged neither Jones nor the research unit as a whole had acted dishonestly.
“The focus on professor Jones and CRU has been largely misplaced,” the committee said in its report.
“On the accusations relating to professor Jones’ refusal to share raw data and computer codes, the committee considers that his actions were in line with common practice in the climate science community,” it said.
“Insofar as the committee was able to consider accusations of dishonesty against CRU, the committee considers that there is no case to answer,” the report said.
The inquiry did, however, call for greater transparency among scientists, saying raw data and methodologies to support researchers’ work should be released as a matter of course.
“Had both been available, many of the problems at CRU could have been avoided,” committee chair Phil Willis said.
Also See: Fear-mongering on climate change
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