An international panel of scientists will today launch a major inquiry to discover whether official world temperature records have exaggerated the extent of global warming . The panel , convened by the Global Warming Policy Foundation ( GWPF ) , the ‘ climate sceptic ’ think-tank led by the former Tory Chancellor Lord Lawson , will focus on thousands of ‘ adjustments ’ that have been made to temperature records kept at individual weather stations around the world . Sceptics have argued that the effect of such adjustments – made when instruments are replaced or recalibrated , or heat-producing buildings are erected close to weather station sites – has skewed the records . Sceptics : The panel will look at whether 'adjustments ' made to temperature records around the world have made climate change appear worse - or whether they actually manage to cancel each other out . The panel will also examine ‘ extrapolations ’ – when the records include virtual figures from places where there is no actual measuring station , instead basing them on the figures of other stations in the same region . In some areas , such as the Arctic , these may be hundreds of miles away . Sceptics claim that the effect of the adjustments is usually to revise temperatures from decades ago downwards , and to increase recent readings , so that the warming trend of the past 150 years looks larger than it really is . The panel has been drawn from leading universities around the world , and includes scientists with widely differing views on climate change . Panel member Professor William van Wijngaarden , a physicist and climate expert from York University in Toronto , said he had been concerned about the records ’ quality for many years , after noticing that when you examined an individual station ‘ you ’ ll see a sudden jump ’ . Such jumps , he said , were not natural , but the product of adjustments . ‘ Sometimes you get “ corrected ” data without knowing exactly how it has been changed . I ’ m a scientist . I ’ m not going into this with any preconceptions . But if some of the corrections have not been properly made , then we ’ ll find out . We want to see all the actual station data. ’ Dr Benny Peiser , the GWPF director , said the panel would try to look at all the thousands of stations whose data goes into the three main world temperature records – those kept by the Met Office , Nasa , and the US government agency that deals with weather . Tensions : The group have brought together people from all sides of the debate to look into the problem , and is asking as many people as possible to hand data over . Pictured : Climate change protest . ‘ The question is , do the adjustments balance each other out ? ’ he asked . ‘ Do they make half the stations a little warmer , and half a little cooler , or is there evidence of bias ? ‘ It may turn out there is no problem . It may that there is. ’ He said the panel ’ s work would be ‘ transparent ’ , with all data made available though a public website . The panel ’ s chairman is Professor Terence Kealey , former vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham . He said : ‘ While we believe that the 20th Century warming is real , we are concerned by claims that the actual trend is different from – or less certain than – has been suggested . ‘ We hope to perform a valuable public service by getting everything out into the open . ‘ We hope that people who are concerned with the integrity of climate science , from all sides of the debate , will help us to get to the bottom of these questions by telling us what they know about the temperature records and the adjustments made to them . ’
Climate sceptic ##al Global climate change Foundation launch inquiry . Panel drawn from various universities includes experts with differing views . Will looks at whether ' adjustments ' relate to records cancel each other out . • it hopes people from all areas of climate change will help the organisation .