By RTCC staff
This dispute relates to data from weather stations in Auckland, Masterton, Wellington, Nelson, Hokitika, Lincoln and Dunedin
A judge in New Zealand’s High Court has thrown out an attempt by a group of climate sceptics to have a government agency’s temperature data declared invalid.
The New Zealand Climate Education Trust had challenged the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) over findings that the country’s temperature had risen by one degree Celsius over the last century.
The Trust had claimed the agency’s methodology was flawed and that its findings were not peer reviewed.
But Justice Geoffrey Vanning ruled that the group had not been successful in any of the challenges they had brought and ordered them to pay NIWA’s costs.
The state agency had “acted in accordance internationally recognised and credible scientific methodology,” he said.
NIWA Chairman Chris Mace said: “High Court Judge, Justice Venning’s ruling is a comprehensive reinforcement of the professionalism and credibility of NIWA’s science and scientists.”
Scientists from Wellington’s Victoria University and the University of Otago welcomed the decision.
“The basic science of climate change has been established for well over a century, and almost all scientists active in climate research agree that human activity is causing the climate to change,” they said in a statement.
Barry Brill, Chairman of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition said he was unwilling to accept the decision, writing that he would be “be conferring with counsel regarding the prospects of an appeal against Justice Venning’s decision.”
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