cc: "Midgley, Pauline" <midgley@ipcc.unibe.ch>
date: Wed Jun 24 13:23:15 2009
from: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>
subject: Re: Data access and IPCC
to: Thomas Stocker <stocker@climate.unibe.ch>, wg1 <wg1@ipcc.unibe.ch>

    Dear Thomas,
        Attached is a document that you should only bother to look at it you have
    time to spare - stuck on a train or long flight. It is a submission by a skeptic
    to EPA in the USA.
       I'm sending it only for background. I wouldn't want this issue to be raised
    at the Venice meeting, but I think you'll likely to become more aware these people as
    AR5 advances. I was in Boulder last week and I spoke to Susan. We agreed
    that the only way IPCC can work is the collegiate way it did with AR4.
       These people know they are losing (or have lost) on the science. They are now
    going for the process. All you need to do is to make sure all in AR5 are aware
    of the process and that they adhere to it. We all did with AR4, but these people
    read much more into the IPCC procedures.
     See you in Venice
    Phil

   At 17:17 13/05/2009, Thomas Stocker wrote:

     Dear Phil (cc to Pauline Midgley, Head TSU WGI)
     Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention. I knew about this when the first
     requests were placed on John Mitchell and Keith Briffa and they informed us. What I did
     not know is that they have already placed their focus on Bern (# 17)!
     At that time I argued that in principle there are two interests to balance: (i) FOI, and
     (ii) your own privacy when it comes to opening emails or other mail. Obviously, I am not
     in the position to judge which one obtains and in fact I think a court would be needed
     to establish exactly that balance.
     However, the Arhus Resolution, it seems to me, had another motivation: open access to
     environmental data associated with damage, spills, pollution; the latter word is
     mentioned twice - "climate" never. So to take this convention and turn it around appears
     to me like a perversion.
     One important point to consider is whether Arhus really applies to the IPCC activities.
     In no way are we involved in decision making. We assess and provide scientific
     information. The decision makers are elsewhere. More than ever need we be aware of this
     separation!
     We will discuss this in the TSU but then, this should be brought to the level of the
     Secretariat, at least, since it affects the very basis of our assessment work.
     Thanks again and best regards,
     Thomas
     Phil Jones wrote:

      Dear Thomas,

            I hope you are enjoying your new job!  Apologies in advance
      for upsetting your morning!
         Below there is a link to Climate Audit and their new thread with another
      attempt to gain access to the CRU station temperature data. I wouldn't
      normally bother about this - but will deal with the FOI requests when they
      come.  Despite WMO Resolution 40, I've signed agreements not to pass on
      some parts of the CRU land station data to third parties.
         If you click on the link below and then on comments, look at # 17. This
      refers to a number of appeals a Brit has made to the Information Commissioner
      in the UK. You can see various UK Universities and MOHC listed. For UEA these
      relate to who changed what and why in Ch 6 of AR4. We are dealing with these,
      but I wanted to alert you to few sentences about Switzerland, your University
      and AR5.
          Having been through numerous of these as a result of AR4, I suspect that
      someone will have a go at you at some point. What I think they might try later
      is the same issue:
        Who changed what and why in various chapters of AR5?
        and
        When drafts of chapters come for AR5, we can't review the chapter as we
      can't get access to the data, or, the authors can't refer to these papers as the data
      haven't been made available for audit.
        Neither of these is what I would call Environmental Information,as defined by the
     Aarhus Convention.
        You might want to check with the IPCC Bureau. I've been told that IPCC is
      above national FOI Acts. One way to cover yourself and all those working in AR5
      would be to delete all emails at the end of the process. Hard to do, as not everybody
      will remember to do it.
        I also suspect that as national measures to reduce emissions begin to affect people's
      lives, we are all going to get more of this. We can cope with op-ed pieces, but these
      FOI requests take time, as the whole process of how we all work has to be explained
      to FOI-responsible people at each institution.
        Keep up the good work with AR5!
      Cheers
      Phil

     Dear Mr Jones
     As a UK tax payer from the productive economy, could you please explain why you restrict
     access to data sets that are gathered using tax payer funds e.g. CRUTEM3. Can you
     believe how embarassing this is to a UK TAX PAYER, putting up with your amateurish non
     disclosure of enviromental information.
     For reference [1]http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5962 refers to your absymal attitude to
     public data, although this is just the latest in an embarassing set of reasonable
     requests from  CRU, who the hell do you think you are? There will of course be an FOI on
     the back of this
     Regards
     Ian

     Prof. Phil Jones
     Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
     School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
     University of East Anglia
     Norwich                          Email    p.jones@uea.ac.uk
     NR4 7TJ
     UK
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     --
     ------------------------------------------------------------------
     Thomas Stocker
     Climate and Environmental Physics         stocker@climate.unibe.ch
     Physics Institute, University of Bern        ph:  +41 31 631 44 62
     Sidlerstrasse 5                              fx:  +41 31 631 87 42
     3012 Bern, Switzerland                [2]www.climate.unibe.ch/stocker
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   Prof. Phil Jones
   Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
   School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
   University of East Anglia
   Norwich                          Email    p.jones@uea.ac.uk
   NR4 7TJ
   UK
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