Email leaks 'aimed at climate summit'

A leading climate change scientist whose private emails are included in thousands of documents stolen by hackers and posted online says the leaks may have been aimed at undermining next month's global climate summit in Denmark.

Kevin Trenberth, of the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research, in Colorado, says he believes the hackers who stole a decade's worth of correspondence from a British university's computer server deliberately distributed only those documents that could help attempts by sceptics to undermine the scientific consensus on man-made climate change.

Trenberth, a well-respected atmospheric scientist, says it does not appear that all the documents stolen from the university has been distributed on the internet by the hackers.

The University of East Anglia, in eastern England, on Sunday said hackers stole from its computer server about a decade's worth of data from its Climatic Research Unit, a leading global research centre on climate change. About 1,000 emails and 3,000 documents have been posted on websites and seized on by climate change sceptics, who claim correspondence shows collusion between scientists to overstate the case for global warming, and evidence that some have manipulated evidence.

"It is right before the Copenhagen debate, I'm sure that is not a coincidence," Trenberth said in a telephone interview from Colorado.

At least 65 world leaders will attend the Copenhagen climate summit in December as representatives of 191 nations seek agreement on a new global treaty on limiting emissions of greenhouse gases.

Trenberth, a lead author on the 2001 and 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments, said he had found 102 of his own emails posted online. "I personally feel violated," he said. "I'm appalled at the very selective use of the emails, and the fact they've been taken out of context."

In one of the stolen emails, Trenberth is quoted as saying "we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't".

He said the comment is presented by sceptics as evidence scientists can't explain some trends that appear to contradict their stance on climate change. Trenberth explained his phrase was actually contained in a paper he wrote about the need for better monitoring of global warming to explain the anomalies - in particular improved recording of rising sea surface temperatures.

In another email posted online, and unrelated to Trenberth, the British research centre's director, Phil Jones, wrote that he had used a "trick" to "hide the decline" in a chart detailing recent global temperatures. Jones has denied manipulating evidence and insisted his comment had been misunderstood. He said in a statement on Saturday he'd used the word trick "as in a clever thing to do".

Trenberth acknowledged language used by some colleagues in the hacked emails "looks awkward at best", particularly messages which criticise climate change sceptics.