'No deliberate malpractice on climate report'

London, Apr 15: A review of the work of one of the world's leading climate research centres, which was conducted after a major scandal in 2009, concluded with ruling out of any deliberate scientific malpractice.

The University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was hit by controversy after more than 1,000 e-mails were hacked from the university's server and posted online.

According sceptics the messages provided ample prove on the scientists' attempts to exaggerate the case for global warming ahead of the Dec's U N climate talks, which is centered at striking a new accord to tackle climate change.

An independent panel, headed by Lord Ron Oxburgh, which was asked to probe the charges of dishonest selection or manipulation of CRU's data by the University, concluded that no deliberate malpractices took place.

“We saw no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice in any of the work of the Climatic Research Unit, and had it been there we believe that it is likely that we would have detected it," said the panel.

However, it expressed astonishment that the work was being carried out without any close collaboration with professional statisticians

"It is very surprising that research in an area that depends so heavily on statistical methods has not been carried out in close collaboration with professional statisticians," it added.

CRU scientists were cleared of any wrongdoing by parliamentary inquiry in Mar 2010. The report of the investigation, launched in Dec is being awaited.

OneIndia News