Yesterday the University of East Anglia announced the members of a review panel that would be investigating the scientific papers produced by its Climatic Research Unit, in the wake of the ‘climate-gate’ email theft.
Bob Ward, of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, noted approvingly that the panel headed by Lord Oxburgh was made up of “high-quality” individuals of authority and integrity.
“We will now see predictable attempts by so-called ‘sceptics’ to discredit the panel before it has even started work so that its findings can be conveniently dismissed unless it hands a propaganda goal to those who promote denial and complacency about the causes and consequences of climate change,” he added.
And so it came to pass…
“Commenters are also noting the background of Ron Oxburgh, the chairman of the RS panel. Lord Oxburgh is:
• President of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association
• Chairman of wind energy firm Falck Renewables
• A member of the Green Fiscal Commission
So we have a chairman with a direct financial interest in the outcome. I’m not sure this is a surprise.”
“The man could scarcely be more parti pris if they’d given the job to Al Gore. … So the chairman of this “independent panel” has a direct financial interest in the outcome.”
– James Delingpole, The Daily Telegraph
“Climate sceptics questioned whether Lord Oxburgh, chairman of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association and the wind energy company Falck Renewables, was truly independent because he led organisations that depended on climate change being seen as an urgent problem.”