Two eminent Irish scientists have disagreed over the role of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in compiling reports on global warming.
Ray Bates, adjunct professor of meteorology at University College Dublin, has said the process of compiling reports should be taken out of the hands of the United Nations and made the responsibility of the International Council for Science.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Irelandprogramme, he said a transferral of responsbility would be of benefit to governments as it would eliminate any suspicion of dishonesty in the compilation of reports.
Professor John Sweeney of NUI Maynooth, an editor with the IPCC, disagreed. "There are structural problems in national academies in terms of the composition of committees," he said. "I think it would be a mistake in many respects to divest all of our interest in the IPCC process and invest in national academies completely”.
Recently leaked e-mails from the University of East Anglia prompted claims that some climate change data had been manipulated. The e-mails from the University’s Climatic Research Unit created a worldwide controversy after showing exchanges where scientists wrote about using “tricks”, and one where a scientist urged that some e-mails should be deleted.
Prof Sweeney said the controversy represented a propaganda victory for the climate denial community who had often sought to undermine the credibility of the IPCC.