Saudi Arabia told global warming talks Monday that trust in climate science had been “shaken” by leaked emails among experts and called for an international probe. “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 Dec. 7-18 UN talks. Al-Sabban called for an “independent” international probe, 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 (IPCC). 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.” Negotiators and top scientists also slammed the theft of emails from experts at a British university as a bid to discredit overwhelming opinion about man-made global warming. At ceremonies opening the 12-day negotiations, the head of the UN's Nobel-winning panel of scientists branded the so-called Climategate affair as a suspected attempt to tarnish his organization.
