“The level of trust is definitely shaken, especially now that we are about to conclude an agreement that … is going to mean sacrifices for our economies,” Mohammed Al-Sabban, the Kingdom’s top climate negotiator, told delegates at the opening of the Dec. 7-18 UN talks.
Al-Sabban called for an “independent” international investigation, but said that the UN climate science body was unqualified to carry it out.
“The IPCC, which is the authority accused, is not going to be able to conduct the investigation,” he said, referring to the Nobel-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change.
The Saudi negotiator rejected IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri’s defense of the integrity of the panel’s findings — delivered earlier in the plenary session — as “general statements.”
“In light of recent information … the scientific scandal has assumed huge proportion,” Al-Sabban said. “We think it is definitely going to affect the nature of what can be trusted in the negotiations.”
E-mails stolen from the climate unit at the University of East Anglia appeared to show some of world’s leading scientists discussing ways to shield data from public scrutiny and suppress other’s work. This has triggered speculation scientists have been manipulating information to argue that global warming is man-made.
But Pachauri said that “the evidence is now overwhelming” that the world needs early action to combat global warming. He defended climate research in the face of the e-mail controversy.
The two-week conference convened in an upbeat mood after a series of promises by rich and emerging economies to curb their greenhouse gases. Still, major issues have yet to be resolved.
At stake is a deal that aims to wean the world away from fossil fuels and other pollutants to greener sources of energy, and to transfer hundreds of billions of dollars from rich to poor countries every year over decades to help them adapt to climate change.
Scientists say without such an agreement, the Earth will face the consequences of ever-rising temperatures, leading to the extinction of plant and animal species, the flooding of coastal cities, more extreme weather, drought and the spread of diseases.
Negotiations have dragged on for two years, only recently showing signs of breakthroughs with new commitments from the United States, China and India to control greenhouse gas emissions. But the commitments remained short of scientists’ demands, and the pressure was on those major emitters for bigger cuts.
The conference opened with video clips of children from around the globe urging delegates to help them grow up without facing catastrophic warming. On the sidelines, climate activists competed to highlight their campaigns on deforestation, clean energy and low-carbon growth.
Mohamad Shinaz, an activist from the Maldives, plunged feet-first into a tank with nearly 750 liters of frigid water to illustrate what rising sea levels were doing to his island nation. “I want people to know that this is happening,” Shinaz said. “We have to stop global warming.”
Leah Wickham, a 24-year-old from Fiji, broke down in tears as she handed a petition from 10 million people asking the negotiators at Copenhagen to come up with a deal to save islands like hers. “I’m on the front lines of climate change,” she said.
