Climate change scientists promise more accurate data

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 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.

But 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. But Mr Ban 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.