Abbott government’s initiative proved useful in confirming BoM’s credibility about global warming

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott considered establishing an investigation team to find out if the Bureau of Meteorology, or BoM, exaggerated temperature data records, as claimed by articles published by The Australian in August and September 2014. However, Environment Minister Greg Hunt asked Abbott to drop the idea.

According to documents obtained by ABC under Freedom of Information, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet prepared a brief in September 2014 regarding the claims The Australian had printed about the BoM exaggerating temperature data records.

The brief stated that the temperature records provided by BoM were “recognised internationally as among the best in the world” and used a proven and peer-reviewed scientific approach to depict the data sets.

“Nevertheless, the public need confidence information on Australia’s, and the world’s climate is reliable and based on the best available science,” then-PM&C secretary Ian Watt had written, reports The Guardian.

According to the earlier terms, the investigation team would look after the due seriousness of authorities looking after climatic issues in Australia, to ensure availability of best possible data sets for climate and emissions records. The taskforce would also be required to make sure the BoM data sets were appropriate and not exaggerated.

Hunt advocated setting up a Technical Advisory Forum to review the BoM’s temperature data. “It is important to emphasise that this is primarily a matter of meteorology, statistics and data assurance,” Hunt wrote in a letter to Abbott.

The 2015 panel consisted of prominent statisticians, who confirmed to the ABC that the taskforce had indeed been set up as a response to the articles The Australian published.

In June 2015, the panel confirmed that BoM’s data records depicting pattern of global warming were true and up to the mark. “There is a clear trend [of temperature] increase in both the raw and homogenised temperature data, and the temperature patterns exhibited in a variety of other datasets have a similar character,” the report said.

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