A leaked copy of a United Nations report, compiled by hundreds of scientists, proves that politicians in Belgium, Germany, Hungary and the U.S. raised concerns about the final draft.

Scheduled to be published next week, the report is expected to address the fact that the hottest year on record was in 1998. Scientists have long struggled to explain.

The result of six years' work by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is seen as the world authority on the extent of climate change and what is causing it - on which governments including Britain's base their green policies.

Leaked reports as seen by the Associated Press revealed deep concerns among politicians about a lack of global warming over the past few years.

Germany called for the references to the slowdown in warming to be deleted. They argued that examining a time span of just 10 or 15 years was "misleading" and they should focus on decades or centuries. Hungary worried the report would provide ammunition for deniers of man-made climate change.

The nation of Belgium took offense to using 1998 as a starting year for statistics, as it was exceptionally warm and makes the graph look flat. Belgium suggested using 1999 or 2000 instead to give a more upward-pointing curve.

The U.S. delegation weighed in, urging the authors of the report to explain away the lack of warming using the "leading hypothesis" among scientists that the lower warming is down to more heat being absorbed by the ocean - which has grown hotter.

The last IPCC "assessment report" was published in 2007 and has been the subject of huge controversy after it had to correct the embarrassing claim that the Himalayas would melt by 2035.

Leaked emails allegedly showing scientists involved in it trying to manipulate their data to make it look more convincing. Several inquiries found no wrongdoing.

The latest report, which runs to 2,000 pages, will be shown to representatives from all 195 governments next week at a meeting in Stockholm, who can discuss alterations they want to make.

The report is expected to say the rate of warming between 1998 and 2012 was about half of the average rate since 1951 - and put this down to natural variations such as the El Nino and La Nina ocean cycles and the cooling effects of volcanoes.

http://catholic.org/green/story.php?id=52470