Met Office slams climate sceptics

The UK's Meteorological Office has issued a damning attack on climate change sceptics, arguing that recent slow down in warming trends is entirely in line with scientists expectations.

"Anyone who thinks global warming has stopped has their head in the sand," said the organisation in a brochure published last week.

The Met Office was responding to suggestions that global warming is a myth because of slower warming in the past decade, and recent years that have been consecutively cooler.

"Over the last 10 years, global temperatures have warmed more slowly than the long-term trend. But this does not mean that global warming has slowed down or even stopped," said the Met Office, which also said that 2008 was thus far the tenth warmest year on record. "It is entirely consistent with our understanding of natural fluctuations of the climate within a trend of continued long-term warming."

The declaration came as professor Chris Rapley, director of the UK's Science Museum and former head of the British Antarctic Survey, warned that recent research showed global warming was occuring faster than climate change models suggested.

Speaking at a conference in London yesterday, he also warned that efforts to curb global carbon emissions since the turn of the century had no discernable impact. "The tanker isn't even moving in the right direction," he said. "We are completely on the business as usual track. In fact, emissions are growing slightly faster than expected."

Despite the lack of progress, growing numbers of firms are now treating climate change as a serious threat to their business. Ceres, a coalition of sustainable investors, has documented a record 57 shareholder resolutions against corporations this year by shareholders concerned about the business risk of climate change.

However, business groups remain unconvinced over the case for action.

"The business risk is from the government," said Maureen Bader, BC director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, criticising it for providing tax benefits to renewables projects and for considering cap-and-trade schemes for carbon emissions, which she believes will unnecessarily hinder economic growth. Bader added that there has been no global warming this century.