Ever the bastion of hard-hitting investigative journalism, the Daily Mail on Sunday had a shocking story from super-trustworthy journalist extraordinaire David Rose. Echoed on WUWT, which claims the “Climate Scam Exposed,” and with the Daily Caller describing it as having “[stolen] millions from taxpayers by faking global warming research,” it seems like quite a juicy exposé of nefarious goings-on at the UK’s Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP), headed by legendary economist Nick Stern.
The reality, of course, is much more mundane. Rose spins up a scandal out of a simple mistake addressed by a brief note from CCCEP. Seems in the course of listing the group’s output as part of a proposal for further funding, a handful of papers were included that should not have been. Out of 520 research and policy outputs, including 276 peer-reviewed papers, seven studies were accidentally included. These studies were co-authored by CCCEP experts, but not as part of CCCEP. So whichever grad student, intern or secretary charged with pulling together a list of output by the academics funded by CCCEP accidentally included a few papers that looked like they were CCCEP products, but weren’t.
This includes a couple of papers which were published online in 2008, before the CCCEP’s founding, but not formally published in the physical journals until 2009, when CCCEP was operational. So the date listed was likely 2009, making them appear to be CCEP products when they were not. This attribution error, according to Richard “Gremlins” Tol, whose work with a CCCEP academic was accidentally included, amounts to “fraud.” As others have pointed out, this is an awfully strong charge from a man whose errors, which every time make climate change seem not so bad, have been called out and corrected time and again.
Why would Rose bring up this non-story about funding received in 2013 now? Might have something to do with the fact that CCCEP is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the canonical Stern Review this week.
In an ideal world, Rose would be held responsible for this sort of over-hyped nonsense, and his editors would admonish him for this tempest-in-a-teapot spinning of an administrative error as a major scandal. But since we’re talking about a tabloid, it’s unlikely he’ll get even the least of what he deserves- a Stern talking to.
Top Climate and Clean Energy Stories:
Solar amendment campaign in Florida scrubs its web pages after leaked recording | described the subsequent utility-backed constitutional amendment as “political jiu jitsu” used to persuade voters to support restrictions on the expansion of solar by presenting the proposal as a pro-solar initiative.
IEA raises five-year renewables forecast after record 2015 growth | In terms of installed capacity, renewables surpassed coal last year to become the largest power source in the world, the IEA said.
Species may be listed as threatened based on climate change projections, court says - “The service need not wait until a species’ habitat is destroyed to determine that habitat loss may facilitate extinction,” Judge Richard A. Paez, a Clinton appointee, wrote for the court.
Greenhouse Gas Initiative benefits economy, environment | Massachusetts-born historian and author Will Durant once wrote, "The health of nations is more important than the wealth of nations." With the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, we can have both.
More coal plants will deepen - not cut - poverty, researchers warn | Building just a third of planned new coal-fired power plants around the world would push hundreds of millions of people into poverty as it accelerates climate change past an agreed limit of 2 degrees Celsius of warming
Why the ‘major-hurricane drought’ is the most overblown statistic in meteorology - Consider, in the 11 years since Wilma, two of the three most costly storms in U.S. history occurred: Sandy in 2012, and Hurricane Ike in 2008 — neither of which was classified as “major.”