By DANIEL MARTIN Daily Mail
Last updated at 2:09 PM on 23rd November 2009
The director of a climate research unit at the centre of a row over manipulating data on global warming after hundreds of private emails were stolen by hackers said today it was 'ludicrous' to suggest anything untoward took place during the research.
The material was taken from servers at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, a world-renowned research centre, before it was published on websites run by climate change sceptics, possibly in a bid to undermine next month's global climate summit in Denmark.
But Professor Phil Jones, the centre's director whose emails were at the centre of the row, said he wanted to put the record straight.
Climate-change sceptics claim emails they have discovered prove that data which did not support global warming was suppressed
Some commentators claimed his emails showed that scientists at the centre manipulated data to bolster their argument that global warming is genuine and is being caused by human actions.
In one email seized upon by sceptics, Prof Jones referred to a 'trick' being employed to massage temperature statistics to 'hide the decline'.
Today, he said the email 'caused a great deal of ill-informed comment, but has been taken completely out of context and I want to put the record straight'.
He said: 'The word 'trick' was used here colloquially as in a clever thing to do. It is ludicrous to suggest that it refers to anything untoward.'
But Lord Lawson, the former chancellor who is now a prominent climate change sceptic, called for an independent inquiry into the claims.
He said the credibility of the unit and of British science were under threat.
'They should set up a public inquiry under someone who is totally respected and get to the truth,' he told the BBC Radio Four Today programme.
'If there's an explanation for what's going on they can make that explanation.'
Kevin Trenberth, a leading climate change scientist whose private emails were also among those stolen, said the leaks may have been aimed at undermining next month's global climate summit in Denmark.
Dr Trenberth, of the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research, in Colorado, said he believed the hackers deliberately distributed only those documents that could help attempts by sceptics to undermine the scientific consensus on man-made climate change.
'It is right before the Copenhagen debate, I'm sure that is not a coincidence,' he said.
The lead author on the 2001 and 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments said he found 102 of his emails posted online.
'I personally feel violated,' he said.
'I'm appalled at the very selective use of the e-mails, and the fact they've been taken out of context.'
In one of the stolen e-mails, he is quoted as saying: 'We can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't.'
He said sceptics had argued it showed scientists can not explain some trends that appear to contradict their stance on climate change.
But Dr Trenberth said his phrase was actually contained in a paper he wrote about the need for better monitoring of global warming to explain the anomalies - in particular improved recording of rising sea surface temperatures.
Last week, a spokesman for the University of East Anglia said: 'It is a matter of concern that data, including personal information about individuals, appears to have been illegally taken from the university and elements published selectively on a number of websites.
'The volume of material published and its piecemeal nature makes it impossible to confirm what proportion is genuine.
'We took immediate action to remove the server in question from operation and have involved the police in what we consider to be a criminal investigation.'
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