Scientists move to improve climate data, reject 'skeptics'

The move comes as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged environment ministers to reject efforts by skeptics to derail a global climate deal.

Ban urged environment ministers meeting in Bali, Indonesia, to reject attempts by skeptics to undermine efforts to forge a climate change deal, saying global warming poses a clear and present danger.

Ban referred to the controversy over the 2007 climate panel report that drew widespread criticism and calls for the panel's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, to resign.

The latest IPCC report said that Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035 -- a huge exaggeration  -- exposing shortcomings of the IPCC process.

It also follows revelations last November that University of East Anglia climate scientists stonewalled climate skeptics. The researchers were found to have violated Britain's Freedom of Information laws.

To maintain the momentum, I urge you to reject last-ditch attempts by climate skeptics to derail your negotiations by exaggerating shortcomings in the ... report, Ban said at the start of an annual UN meeting of environmental officials from 130 countries on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

Tell the world that you unanimously agree that climate change is a clear and present danger, Ban said.

A UN study issued Tuesday said countries will have to significantly increase their pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions to prevent the catastrophic effects of climate change.

British scientists proposed climate scientist around the world collect better data, measuring land surface temperatures several times a day and making the data available to the public.

This effort will ensure that the datasets are completely robust and that all methods are transparent, the Met Office said.

The move follows a call from climate scientists writing in this month issue of Nature to reform the way the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change collects and processes studies and criticism. 

Like the financial sector last year, the IPCC is currently experiencing a failure of trust that reveals flaws in its structure, wrote Eduardo Zorita of the GKSS Research Centre in Germany.