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Saudi Arabia is very concerned about "Climategate": As 15,000 delegates from 192 nations began what was billed as the "last, best chance" to avert a catastrophic rise in sea and air temperatures, Saudi Arabia’s chief climate negotiator, Mohammed al-Sabban, spoke from the floor to say that e-mails hacked from a UK research centre had shaken ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

Saudi Arabia is very concerned about "Climategate":

Saudi Arabia is very concerned about "Climategate":

As 15,000 delegates from 192 nations began what was billed as the "last, best chance" to avert a catastrophic rise in sea and air temperatures, Saudi Arabia’s chief climate negotiator, Mohammed al-Sabban, spoke from the floor to say that e-mails hacked from a UK research centre had shaken trust in the work of scientists….

"In light of recent information … the scientific scandal has assumed huge proportion," he said. "We think it is definitely going to affect the nature of what can be trusted in the negotiations."

While he didn’t exactly have a lot of good options, I wonder if International Panel on Climate Change Chair Rajendra Pachauri didn’t make a tactical error by addressing the Climategate critics and defending the work of the IPCC in his opening statement. If the U.N. allows the conference to turn into a debate on whether climate change is even happening, rather than what to do about it, they’ve probably already lost half the war. 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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