Lords call for "calm nerves" in response to Climategate

An influential group of peers yesterday called on politicians, businesses and the media to take a more dispassionate stance on the so-called "climategate" controversy, warning that exaggerated concerns over the accuracy of climate science were in danger of delaying action to address climate change risks.

Writing in a letter published in the Daily Telegraph, the group of 15 Lords urged “the media, the public, policy makers and the scientific community to calm their nerves and take a proportionate look at the evidence as a whole".

It added that "the overwhelming body of peer-reviewed scientific evidence shows… climate change is happening and is very likely to be caused by human activity".

The group includes some of the UK's most influential climate policy experts, such as Lord Stern, head of the Climate Change Committee Lord Turner, chairman of the Environment Agency Lord Smith, former BP chief executive Lord Browne, and CBI boss Richard Lambert.

The letter argues that policy makers and business leaders must accept that climate science is inherently uncertain and as a result should be assessed based on the balance of risk attached to scientists' predictions.

"Yes, there is uncertainty in the science, and there probably always will be, " it says. "But the uncertainties are not primarily about whether or not climate change is happening, but about how fast change will come and how bad it will be. The challenge is one of the management of risk, and none of the evidence implies that we can be confident that the risks are small. On the contrary, taken together, the evidence strongly suggests that the risks are major and delay in action is dangerous."

It accepts that political and business leaders should not “gloss over" the inaccuracies and breaches of protocol that have emerged at the IPCC and the University of East Anglia respectively, but urges them to "maintain our resolve to focus on the real issues".

"What matters is how we get global emissions to peak and start to decline in not much more than a decade; reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050; how we shift to a low carbon economy; how we will adapt our communities and infrastructure to more extreme events, such as flooding, drought and sea level rise; and how we will change behaviours and values so that we can all live in a cleaner, more sustainable world," the letter states.

The letter comes as Republicans this week launched a co-ordinated attack on both climate science and the US administration's attempts to pass climate change legislation based largely on the fact that the East Coast of America is currently enduring an unseasonable cold snap.

The family of renowned climate sceptic, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, built an igloo on Capitol Hill with a sign reading "Al Gore's New Home", while the Senator himself emailed the New York Times stating that the cold weather reinforced doubts that global warming was "unequivocal".

Meanwhile, right wing bloggers and talk show hosts cited the cold weather as evidence climate change is not happening and the Virginia Republican Party launched an online ad titled "12 inches of global warming" and criticising two Democrat representatives for backing the proposed climate change bill.

The attacks were immediately condemned by climate scientists, who pointed out that there is a difference between climate and weather, and that an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events is entirely consistent with rising average global temperatures.