Lawmakers found researchers at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), headed by Phil Jones, acted in line with normal practices when they refused data requests and did not seek to mislead.

The House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee did, however, urge climate change scientists to routinely make more information available to the public in a bid to prevent future controversies.

Jones -- who has stepped aside as director of the unit while investigations take place -- came under fire after more than 1,000 emails were hacked from the university's server and posted online.

Sceptics claimed the messages showed evidence scientists were trying to exaggerate the case for global warming in the run-up to December's UN climate talks aimed at striking a new accord to tackle climate change.

But the investigation into the disclosure of data, the first of several inquiries into the controversy here, judged neither Jones nor the research unit as a whole had acted dishonestly.

"The focus on Professor Jones and CRU has been largely misplaced," said the committee in its report.

"On the accusations relating to Professor Jones's refusal to share raw data and computer codes, the committee considers that his actions were in line with common practice in the climate science community."

"Insofar as the committee was able to consider accusations of dishonesty against CRU, the committee considers that there is no case to answer," it said.

The inquiry did, however, call for greater transparency among scientists, saying raw data and methodologies to support researchers' work should be released as a matter of course.

"Had both been available, many of the problems at CRU could have been avoided," said committee chair Phil Willis.

The committee also said it found no reason to challenge scientific consensus that "global warming is happening [and] that it is induced by human activity," citing John Beddington, the British government's top science adviser.

It stressed its inquiry was not into the science produced at the unit, however, saying this would be the job of another investigation.

Much attention had focused on Jones's reference in one private email to a "trick" being employed to massage temperature statistics to "hide the decline."

But the committee concluded that "they were colloquial terms used in private emails and the balance of evidence is that they were not part of a systematic attempt to mislead."

The scientist has said the scandal triggered by the hacked emails pushed him to the brink of suicide.

The parliamentary inquiry is the first of three investigations into the scandal. Another independent probe is examining allegations researchers manipulated data, while a third looks into the science at the unit.

earlier related report
Climate: 75 countries set carbon emission targets for 2020 - UN
Paris (AFP) March 31, 2010 - Seventy-five countries accounting for more than 80 percent of greenhouse gases from energy use have filed pledges to cut or limit carbon emissions by 2020, the UN climate convention said Wednesday.

The promises, made under the Copenhagen Accord, are only a step towards wider action to tackle global warming, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said in its official report on December's world climate summit.

A total of 111 countries plus the European Union (EU) "have indicated their support for the Accord," the UNFCCC said.

Cobbled together in the summit's crisis-ridden final hours, the Copenhagen Accord sets the goal of limiting warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), gathering rich and poor countries in action against carbon pollution that causes the problem.

It also promises 30 billion dollars (22 billion euros) for climate-vulnerable poor countries in the three years to 2012, and up to 100 billion dollars annually by 2020.

Supporters point out it is the first accord to include advanced and emerging economies in specified emissions curbs.

Critics retort that it has no deadline for reaching the warming target, has no roadmap for reaching it and its pledges are only voluntary.

The UNFCCC's report on Wednesday confirms that major emitters, including China, India and Brazil, have given the Accord their political blessing.

After more than two months of foot-dragging, the emerging giants separately aligned themselves with the document in early March.

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said the promises were significant but not the final answer.

"It is clear that while the pledges on the table are an important step towards the objective of limiting growth of emissions, they will not in themselves suffice to limit warming to below 2 C (3.6 F)," he said.

"The climate conference at the end of this year in Mexico therefore needs to put in place effective cooperative mechanisms capable of bringing about significant acceleration of national, regional and international action both to limit the growth of emissions and to prepare for the inevitable impacts of climate change."

The December 7-19 confab drew attendance from 120 heads of state or government, the highest for any climate meeting.

It was initially touted as the culmination of a two-year negotiation process towards a global pact for tackling climate change beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol's current provisions expire.

But delaying tactics and textual warfare, reflecting entrenched national interests and concern over the cost of switching out of carbon-intensive fuels, drove the summit to near-collapse.

In the end, heads of around two dozen countries, led by the major emitters, huddled together to produce the Accord.

The first official talks under the 194-nation UNFCCC will take place in Bonn, western Germany, from April 9-11.

Negotiators will be tasked with breathing life into the Copenhagen deal and seeing how it integrates with the labyrinthine two-track UNFCCC process.

"The meeting... is going to be very important to rebuild confidence in the process, to rebuild confidence that the way forward will be open and transparent on the one hand and efficient on the other," de Boer told reporters in a teleconference.

Greenhouse gases are mainly carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and gas as well as methane from forest loss and agriculture.

They are blamed for trapping the Sun's heat in the atmosphere, instead of letting it radiate safely back into space.

The warming is changing the delicate ballet of Earth's climate system -- and by century's end, many millions could be afflicted by drought, floods, rising seas and severe storms, experts fear.

To achieve the 2 C (3.6 F) goal by 2100, rich countries would have to cut their emissions by 25-40 percent by 2020 over 1990 levels, while developing countries would have to brake their emissions by 15-30 percent below forecast trends.

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