|
Freedom of Information requests to the Climatic Research Unit featured in press discussions of disputes over access to data from instrumental temperature records, particularly during the Climatic Research Unit email controversy which began in November 2009. The UK Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) came into effect in 2005, and FOI requests were made to the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) for the raw data from weather stations used in developing instrumental temperature record datasets, for copies of agreements under which the raw data was obtained from meteorology institutions, and also for email correspondence relating to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report. In many cases the raw data which CRU had obtained from National Meteorological Organisations was subject to restrictions on redistribution: on 12 August 2009 CRU announced that they were seeking permission to waive these restrictions, and on 24 November 2009 the university stated that over 95% of the CRU climate data set had already been available for several years, with the remainder to be released when permissions were obtained. In a decision announced on 27 July 2011 the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) required release of raw data even though permissions had not been obtained or in one instance had been refused, and on 27 July 2011 CRU announced release of the raw instrumental data not already in the public domain, with the exception of Poland which was outside the area covered by the FOIA request. A 2008 FOI request by David Holland for emails discussing work on the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report was refused by the university. In November 2009 he alleged that CRU emails posted online discussed deleting the emails he had requested: in January 2010 the Deputy Information Commissioner told a journalist that this indicated an offence under section 77 of the FOIA, but prosecution was time-barred by statute of limitations. Newspapers misrepresented this as a decision in relation to raw data, and the issue was discussed by the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee inquiry, which found there had been a lack of openness. The ICO decision published on 7 July 2010 stated that this potential offence had not been investigated as it was time-barred. As Holland was content not to proceed with his complaint against the university, no further action was needed, but the ICO would "consider whether further action is appropriate to secure future compliance." In September 2011 the ICO issued new guidance to universities. This described exceptions and exemptions to protect research, including allowance for internal exchange of views between academics and researchers free from external scrutiny, as well as commending actively disclosing information when it is in the public interest. ==FOIA requests for raw climate data== From 1978 onwards, the Climatic Research Unit developed its gridded CRUTEM data set of land air temperature anomalies based on instrumental temperature records held by National Meteorological Organisations around the world, often under formal or informal confidentiality agreements that restricted use of this raw data to academic purposes. Beginning in 1991, Phil Jones of CRU discussed data with Warwick Hughes (later of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition), and from 2002 onwards had requests from Stephen McIntyre for raw data relating to the hockey stick graph as shown in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of 2001. At first Jones met their requests, but increasingly felt that he was inundated with requests that he could not meet due to time or confidentiality constraints, and began refusing requests.〔 The new UK Freedom of Information Act came into effect in 2005, and in February of that year Jones discussed with fellow climate researchers the potential implications of the Act for McIntyre's requests. In 2007 he told colleagues that, having seen what McIntyre's Climate Audit blog was doing, UEA had been turning down FOIA requests associated with the blog. The scientists concerned saw such requests as disrupting the time available for their work, and those making them as nitpicking to suit an agenda rather than trying to advance scientific knowledge. Late in 2008, the university's FOI managers took advice from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on exceptions allowing refusal of requests.〔 McIntyre complained that data denied to him had been sent to Peter Webster at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who was working on a joint publication with Jones, and between 24 and 29 July 2009 the university received 58 FOI requests for raw data or details of the confidentiality agreements from McIntyre and his readers at the Climate Audit blog.〔 *〕 On 24 July Jonathan A. Jones of the University of Oxford made a FOIA request for the data that Jones had sent to Webster, the UEA refused this request on 14 August. Don Keiller of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge then made a similar FOIA request, UEA refused this on 11 September 2009.〔(letter to Jonathan Jones ), and FOI request made 24 July 2009, refused by UEA 14 August 2009. FOI request made 14 August 2009, refused by UEA 11 September 2009.〕 On 12 August 2009, Nature News published a statement by Phil Jones that he was working to release the raw data in a systematic way, and was writing to all the National Meteorological Organisations requesting their agreement to waive confidentiality.〔 In mid October CRU issued a statement on data availability, describing how National Metereological Services (NMSs) and scientists had given or sold them data with written or verbal agreements that it must only used for academic purposes, and not passed onto third parties. There were difficulties in separating out raw data, some of which was subject to charges made by NMSs, and "These data are not ours to provide without the full permission of the relevant NMSs, organizations and scientists." They hoped to obtain consents and to publish all the data jointly with the Met Office. On 24 November 2009, four days after the start of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy, the university stated that over 95% of the CRU climate data set had already been available for several years, and the remainder would be released when permissions were given. The university worked closely with the Met Office, which sent requests to National Meteorological Organisations for agreement to waive confidentiality on raw instrumental data, as CRU had announced on 12 August 2009.〔 Some gave full or conditional agreement, others failed to respond, and the request was explicitly refused by Trinidad and Tobago and Poland.〔 In discussions with the ICO about the FOIA requests which Jonathan Jones and Don Keiller had made before the email controversy had begun, the university argued that the data was publicly available from the Met organisations, and the lack of agreement exempted the remaining data. In its decision released on 23 June 2011, the ICO stated that the data was not easily available and there was insufficient evidence that disclosure would have an adverse effect on international relations. The ICO required the university to release the data covered by the FOIA request within 35 calendar days.〔 On 27 July 2011 CRU announced release of the raw instrumental data not already in the public domain, with the exception of Poland which was outside the area covered by the FOIA request. The data are available for download from Met Office website and from CRU. The university remained concerned "that the forced release of material from a source which has explicitly refused to give permission for release could have some damaging consequences for the UK in international research collaborations."〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Freedom of Information requests to the Climatic Research Unit」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|